LIBRARY 

WIVEKSITY  ©F  CALIFORNIA 

r>  4  vre 


OTHER  WORKS  BY  THE  AUTHOR  OF 

THE  AMERICAN  SLAVE-TRADE 


THE    GOLD    DIGGINGS    OF   CAPE 
HORN. 

THE    PORT   OF    MISSING    SHIPS. 
(Fiction. ) 

OUR  NAVY  IN  THE  WAR  WITH 
SPAIN. 

THE    HISTORY    OF    OUR    NAVY. 

(Including  above  volume.)     5  vols. 

THE   FUGITIVE.     (Fiction.) 


THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 


KIDNAPPING   BEN   JOHNSON   BECAME   A   SLAVE   HIMSELF. 

See  page  54. 


THE  AMERICAN 
SLAVE-TRADE 

AN   ACCOUNT   OF 

ITS    ORIGIN,    GROWTH 
AND    SUPPRESSION 


BY 

JOHN    R.    SPEARS 


ILLUSTRATED   BY 

WALTER  APPLETON   CLARK 


NEW   YORK 

CHARLES    SCRIBNER'S    SONS 
1900 


LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF 
DAVIS 


COPYRIGHT,  1900,  BY 
CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 


TROW  OIRBCTORV 
AND   BOOKBINDING  COVI'AMV 
NEW   VORK 


ALL  WHO  SINCERELY 
STRIVE  TO   UNDERSTAND  AND   OBEY 

THE  DIVINE   COMMAND 
THOU  SHALT  LOVE   THY  NEIGHBOR  AS  THYSELF 


PREFACE 

THIS  history  of  the  American  slave-trade  grew  out 
of  a  study  of  the  history  of  the  American  navy.  The 
navy  was  in  a  way  connected  with  the  slave-trade, 
but  the  subject  was  so  large  that  only  the  briefest 
mention  of  what  the  navy  did  on  the  slave  coast 
could  be  made  in  "The  History  of  Our  Navy."  The 
discovery  that  our  naval  ships,  in  forces  ranging  from 
a  single  schooner  to  a  frigate  squadron,  had  cruised 
on  the  coast  of  Africa  at  intervals  during  a  period 
of  nearly  forty  years  for  the  proclaimed  purpose 
of  suppressing  the  slave-trade  without  accomplish 
ing  so  much  as  a  restriction  of  it,  determined  me 
to  give  the  subject  a  separate  consideration.  What 
I  have  gathered  I  have  set  down  here  as  well  as 
I  could. 

As  it  seems  to  me,  the  facts  form  the  most  remark 
able  story  known  to  the  history  of  commercial  enter 
prises.  Consider,  for  instance,  the  origin  of  the 
trade.  It  was  established  because  of  the  sincere  pity 
of  a  tender-hearted  and  most  praiseworthy  priest  for 
an  outraged  people.  No  other  trade  ever  had  such 
an  exalted  origin,  and  yet  the  cruelties  and  horrors  of 
it  far  surpass  those  described  in  any  other  branch 
of  history.  The  soldiers  who  have  looted  cities,  the 

vii 


PREFACE 

pirates  who  have  made  passengers  and  sailors  walk 
the  plank,  and  the  religious  zealots  who  have  burned 
their  opponents  at  the  stake,  were  more  merciful  than 
the  slave-traders. 

Further  than  that,  no  trade  ever  paid  such  large 
returns  on  the  investments.  More  remarkable  still, 
the  trade  at  one  time  made  some  who  followed  it 
heroes,  but  at  last  degraded  all  who  were  connected 
with  it  beyond  the  power  of  words  to  describe. 

But  now  that  I  have  written  out  the  facts,  I  am 
bound  to  say,  here  in  advance,  and  to  repeat  further 
on,  that  the  intrinsic  evil  in  the  slave-trade  was  not 
found  in  the  slaughter  of  the  helpless  during  the 
raids  in  Africa,  or  the  horrors  of  the  middle  passage, 
or  the  brutality  of  planters  who  deliberately  worked 
their  slaves  to  death  as  a  matter  of  business  policy  ; 
nor  was  it  in  all  of  these  combined.  I  cannot  say  all 
that  is  in  my  thought,  but  it  is  a  fact  that  the  slave 
trade  and  the  plantations  might  have  been  carried  on 
profitably  without  any  cruelty  whatever  to  the  slave. 
It  is  a  matter  of  knowledge  among  people  now  living 
that  many  planters  promoted  the  physical  comforts 
and  added  to  the  mental  pleasures  of  their  slaves, 
while  here  and  there  a  ship  was  found  to  make  the 
middle  passage  without  losing  a  life.  The  horrors  of 
the  trade  that  cried  aloud  to  heaven  for  more  than 
three  hundred  years  were  merely  the  grosser  natural 
outgrowths  of  the  root  evil  in  it. 

Nor  is  that  all.  If  we  look  at  the  story  with  judi 
cial  mind  (and  it  is  necessary,  though  difficult,  to  do 
so)  we  shall  find  that  the  ills  brought  upon  the  domi- 


PREFACE  ix 

nant  race  by  the  slave-trade  and  slavery  are  more  to 
be  deplored  than  those  inflicted  upon  the  manifestly 
oppressed  negro. 

At  first  thought  it  may  seem  a  story  to  make  an 
American  ashamed  of  his  country.  Certainly  the 
power  of  the  slave-ship  owner  in  national  politics 
before  the  civil  war  was  something  that  makes  us  mar 
vel  now.  From  the  enactment  of  the  law  that  made 
the  slave-trade  piracy  until  Abraham  Lincoln  became 
President  the  policy  of  pretence  that  prevailed  in 
connection  with  the  slave-trade  was  infinitely  dis 
graceful  to  the  nation.  But  when  all  the  facts  are 
fairly  considered,  it  is  found  that  we  were  steadily 
developing,  under  adverse  circumstances,  a  love  of 
exact  Justice.  We  washed  away  our  shame,  at  last, 
with  unstinted  blood,  and  then  a  time  came  when  our 
people  took  up  arms  to  give  liberty  even  to  an  alien 
race.  The  history  of  the  slaver  days  is  worth  con 
sideration  if  only  that  it  may  be  contrasted  with  the 
history  of  the  end  of  the  Nineteenth  Century. 

This  book  has  been  written  almost  wholly  from 
public  documents,  biographies,  stories  of  travellers, 
and  other  sources  of  original  information.  I  am  under 
especial  obligations  to  the  work  of  Professor  Du  Bois 
on  the  suppression  of  the  slave-trade  for  its  full  lists 
of  references,  and  to  Mr.  A.  S.  Clark,  without  whose 
knowledge  of  the  book  trade  I  should  have  been 
unable  to  complete  my  collection  of  authorities. 

J.  E.  S. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER   I 

THE  TRADE  IN  THE   EARLIEST  DAYS 

The  Unnamed  Dutch  Slaver  of  1819— First  Slaver  Fitted  Out  in  American 
Waters  and  the  First  American-built  Slaver — When  Human  Beings  were 
Frequently  a  Part  of  a  Ship's  General  Cargo — How  a  Good  Priest, 
through  a  Love  of  Humanity,  Promoted  the  Traffic— Days  when  Chris 
tian  Missionaries  Found  Profit  in  the  Trade,  and  It  Hurt  the  Conscience 
of  No  One  Engaged  in  It — Kings  and  Nobles  as  Slave-traders — A  Slaver 
Contract  that  was  Considered  a  Magnificent  Triumph  of  Diplomacy — 
The  Yankee  Slavers'  Successful  Stroke  for  Free  Trade  and  Sailors'  Rights 
—Extent  of  the  Early  Traffic, * Page  i 

CHAPTER   II 
OLD-TIME  SLAVER  CAPTAINS  AND  THEIR  SHIPS 

David  Lindsay  as  a  Typical  American  Slaver  of  the  Eighteenth  Century — 
With  a  Rotten  Ship  that  Showed  Daylight  Through  Her  Seams  "Al 
Round  Her  Bow  Under  Deck "  He  Reached  the  Slave-coast,  Gathered 
His  Cargo  in  Spite  of  Fevers,  Deaths  in  the  Crew,  and  Competition, 
and  Finally  Landed  at  Barbadoes  with  "  All  in  Helth  and  Fatt  "—An  As 
trologer's  Chart  for  a  Slaver's  Voyage — Tales  of  the  Slaver  Vikings 
of  Liverpool— Debt  of  Early  American  Commerce  to  the  Slave-trade 
—John  Paul  Jones  a  Slaver Page  2 1 

CHAPTER  III 

WHEN  VOYAGES  WENT  AWRY 

Tales  of  Trouble  When  Lying  on  the  Slave-coast— "  We  are  Ready  to 
Devour  One  Another,  for  Our  Case  is  Desprit" — A  Second  Mate's 
Unlucky  Trip  in  a  Long  Boat— Sickness  in  the  Hold  as  Well  as  Among 

zi 


CONTENTS 

the  Crew— Cocoanuts  and  Oranges  could  not  Serve  in  Place  of  Water 
— Story  of  the  Mutiny  on  the  Slaver  Perfect — Risks  the  Underwriters 
Assumed — The  Proportion  of  Disastrous  Voyages,  ....  Page  31 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  SLAVER  AND   HER   OUTFIT 

There  were  Tiny  Ships  in  the  Trade— One  Vessel  had  a  Capacity  of  5,000 
Gallons  of  Molasses  Only,  and  even  Open  Row-boats  were  used  in  the 
Nineteenth  Century — Dimensions  of  a  Slaver's  Timbers — The  Famous 
Venus,  a  Forerunner  of  the  Yankee  Clippers — Steamers  that  were  in  the 
Trade— The  Blubber  Kettles  of  Whalers  used  for  Boiling  Rice  and  Yams 
— Rum,  Guns,  and  Coin  were  the  Favorite  Articles  of  Traffic,  but  Silks, 
Laces,  Parasols  and  Other  Goods  for  the  Use  of  Women  of  Education 
and  Delicate  Tastes  were  Wanted — A  Naval  Officer's  Estimate  for  a 
Slaver's  Outfit, Page  36 

CHAPTER   V 

ON  THE   SLAVE-COAST 

Physical  Features  of  Land  and  Sea— Peculiarities  of  the  Aborigines  and  some 
Characteristics  that  were  not  Peculiar  to  Them — Gathering  Slaves  for 
the  Market — A  Trade  that  Degenerated  from  a  System  of  Fair  Barter 
into  the  Most  Atrocious  Forms  of  Piracy  Conceivable — Utter  Degra 
dation  of  White  Traders— The  Slaughter  at  Calabar— Prices  Paid  for 
Slaves — The  Barracoons  of  Pedro  Blanco  and  Da  Souza — When  Negroes 
Voluntarily  Sold  Themselves, Page  44 


CHAPTER   VI 
THE   MIDDLE   PASSAGE 

Stowing  Slaves  for  the  Voyage  from  Africa  to  a  Market— The  Galleries- 
Compelled  to  Lie  "  Spoon-fashion  "  to  Save  Deck  Space — A  Plan  by 
which  the  'Tween  Decks  Space  was  Packed  Full— Effects  of  the  Ship's 
Rolling  on  the  Manacled  Cargo — Living  Slaves  Jettisoned  to  Make  a 
Claim  on  the  Underwriters — Horrors  of  "  The  Blood-Stained  Gloria  " — 
Blinded  Crews  of  the  Rodeur  and  the  Leon — Suicide  Among  the  Tortured 
Slaves— Pitiful  Tale  of  a  Weanling's  Death— Punishing  Mutiny  on  the 
American  Slaver  Kentucky— Slave  Ships  Named  for  Two  of  Our 
Presidents, Page  68 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER   VII 

THE  SLAVERS'   PROFIT 

Nine  Hundred  Pounds  on  One  Voyage  of  the  Newport  Slaver  Sanderson,  a 
Vessel  that  was  Offered  for  Sale  at  ^450  with  No  Buyers — One  Voyage 
of  the  Liverpool  Slaver  Enterprise  that  Paid  ^"24,430— Details  of  Ex 
penses  and  Receipts  on  a  Voyage  of  the  Ninety-ton  Schooner  La  For- 
tuna — A  Baltimore  Schooner's  Profit  of  $100,000 — When  the  Venus 
Cleared  $200,000— Sums  Paid  to  Captains  and  Crews — Slave  Transpor 
tation  Compared  with  Modern  Passenger  Traffic,  ....  Page  82 

CHAPTER   VIII 
SLAVER   LEGISLATION   IN  THE   AMERICAN  COLONIES 

The  Colonies  often  Levied  Taxes  on  Imported  Slaves,  and  these  Duties  were 
in  Rare  Cases  Prohibitive,  but  this  Legislation  was  always  Based  on 
Commercial  Considerations  Only,  or  else  a  Fear  of  Negro  Insurrections 
— Great  Britain  Never  Forced  the  Slave-trade  on  them  Against  Their 
Virtuous  Protest— Georgia's  Interesting  Slave  History,  .  .  .  Page  90 

CHAPTER   IX 
THE  EARLY  WORK  FOR   EXTIRPATION 

The  Words  and  Deeds  of  the  Fanatics— The  Quakers — Slaves  that  were 
Freed  by  Baptism — Granville  Sharp  as  a  Liberator — A  Fanatic's  Politi 
cal  Creed  Plainly  Stated— Widespread  Influence  of  the  Somerset  Case 
when  the  Right  Prevailed  in  England — A  Policy  that  would  not  Square 
Well  with  a  Practical  Business  Sense  of  Things— The  American  Declara 
tion  of  Independence  and  the  Black  Men, Page  98 

CHAPTER  X 

THE   SLAVERS  OUTLAWED 

British  Abolitionists  and  Their  Work— After  a  Crusade  of  only  Twenty 
Years,  They  Outlawed  a  Trade  that,  from  a  Business  Point  of  View,  had 
been  the  most  Profitable  in  the  United  Kingdom— The  Slave-trade  and 
the  American  Constitution — Inauguration  of  the  System-  of  Compro 
mises  that  Led  to  the  Civil  War— Slave-trade  Legislation  of  the  States 
—The  Act  of  March  2, 1807, Page  106 


xiv  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  XI 

TALES  OF   THE   EARLIER  SMUGGLERS 

A  Slaver's  Ferry  Between  Havana  and  the  Florida  Ports — Amelia  Island  as 
a  Smugglers'  Headquarters — The  Barataria  Pirates  and  the  Smuggling 
Trade — Extent  of  the  Illegal  Traffic — A  Georgia  Governor  who  Left 
His  Post  to  Become  a  Slave  Smuggler, Page  122 

CHAPTER  XII 

SLAVERS  DECLARED  PIRATES 

Fines  and  Imprisonment  with  Rewards  for  Informers  were  not  Sufficient 
to  Stop  Slave  Smuggling— Workings  of  the  Prohibitive  Legislation 
Illustrated  by  the  Doings  of  the  Knife-inventor  Bowie  and  the  Pirate 
Lafitte  —  Slaves  Sold  by  the  Pound  —  Influences  that  Led  to  the 
Piracy  Act, Page  127 

CHAPTER  XIII 
INTERNATIONAL  CO-OPERATION  FOR  SUPPRESSING  THE  TRADE 

Work  of  British  Diplomacy  among  the  Continental  Powers— When  Spain 
agreed  to  Abolish  the  Slave-trade  for  a  Money  Consideration  and 
Failed  to  Fulfil  Her  Contract— A  Free  Offer  of  "  Sailors'  Rights  "  which 
We  Refused  to  Accept— A  Shameful  Record  in  American  Slaver  Legisla 
tion—The  Ashburton  Treaty, Page  134 

CHAPTER  XIV 
TALES  OF  THE  OUTLAWED  TRADE 

How  the  Laws  were  Interpreted — Slavers  that  would  Make  a  Fierce  Fight — 
Famous  American  Privateers  that  Became  Slavers— Whole  Cargoes  of 
Slaves  Thrown  to  the  Sharks  to  Avoid  the  Confiscation  of  Vessels — 
Tales  of  the  Rapido,  the  Regulo,  and  Hemans's  Brillante—k  Cargo  of 
Slaves  Bound  to  Anchor  and  Chain  and  Thrown  Overboard— A  Slaver 
Who  Coolly  Murdered  His  Sweetheart  and  Child— A  Trade  that  was 
Lucrative  in  Proportion  to  Its  Heinousness, Page  140 


CONTENTS  XV 

CHAPTER  XV 

THE   NAVY  AND  THE   SLAVE-TRADE 

Story  of  the  Half-hearted,  Wholly  Futile  Work  of  Blockading  the  African 
Coast — Reward  of  an  Officer  Who  Earnestly  Strove  to  Stop  the  Trade 
— An  Interesting  Period  in  the  Career  of  Commodore  M.  C.  Perry — 
American  and  British  Squadrons  Compared — The  Sham  Work  of  the 
Buchanan  Administration, Page  148 

CHAPTER  XVI 

FREE-NEGRO  COLONIES  AND  THE   SLAVE-TRADE 

England  Led  the  Way  by  Establishing  a  Colony  at  Sierra  Leone  to  Provide 
a  Home  for  Negroes  Carried  from  the  United  States  during  the  Revolu 
tionary  War — The  Enterprise  Saved  by  the  Sturdy  Maroons — Origin 
of  the  American  Society  for  Colonizing  Free  People  of  Color — Life  of 
the  Colonists  at  Cape  Mesurado — The  Nation  of  Liberia  Organized — 
An  Ape  of  Philanthropy, Page  160 

CHAPTER  XVII 
TALES  OF  THE   COASTWISE  SLAVE-SHIPS 

Colored  Men  from  New  York  Prison  Sent  to  New  Orleans  and  Sold— Steal 
ing  Slaves  in  New  Jersey  for  the  Southwest  Market — Coastwise  Slavers 
that  Lost  their  Human  Cargoes  in  British  Islands— Madison  Washing 
ton  a  Negro  Worthy  of  his  Name — Joshua  R.  Giddings  and  the  Coast 
wise  Trade— Extent  of  the  Coastwise  Traffic Page  173 

CHAPTER  XVIII 
STORY  OF  THE   AMISTAD 

A  Cuban  Coastwise  Slaver  that  may  have  been  Used  to  Smuggle  Slaves  Into 
the  United  States— On  the  Way  from  Havana  to  Puerto  Principe  the 
Slaves  Overpowered  the  Crew,  and  Started  Back  to  Africa,  but  were 
Beguiled  to  Long  Island— Judicially  Decided  that  Slaves  Unlawfully  Held 
have  a  Right  to  Take  Human  Life  in  a  Stroke  for  Liberty,  .  Page  184 


xvi  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  XIX 
LATTER-DAY  SLAVE  SMUGGLERS 

Notable  Slave-ships  that  Plied  between  the  African  Coast  and  the  Unidet 
States  just  before  the  Civil  War— When  the  Wanderer  Carried  the  Flag 
of  the  New  York  Yacht  Club  to  the  Congo — Troubles  of  a  Smuggler  as 
described  in  his  Letter-book— A  Movement  for  Legally  Reopening  the 
Slave-trade — Dream  of  a  Slave  Empire, Page  194 

CHAPTER  XX 

WHEN  THE   END  CAME 

Buchanan's  Administration  and  the  Slave-trade— When  the  Sham  Efforts  to 
Suppress  Came  to  an  End— Story  of  Captain  Gordon  of  the  Erie,  the 
First  Slaver  Pirate  to  be  Executed  in  the  United  States,  .  .  Page  213 


APPENDIX    A, 225 

APPENDIX   B,  .     .     . 229 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Kidnapping  Ben  Johnson  Became  a  Slave  Himself       .        .       Frontispiece 


FACING 
PAGE 


Bringing  One  that  was  Bound  and  Gagged 24 

After  a  Raid .       .*       .        .        .48 

A  Wild  Dash  for  Life  was  Made          .       . : 64 

Every  Soul  on  Board  was  Blind    .        .        .  .       .       .       .        .72 

He  Applied  the  Lash  not    only  to  Make    Them  Eat  but  to  Make 
Them  Sing .        .        .        .96 

It  was  a  Malaria  or  Death-mist  that  I  Saw  Rising       .       .        .        .128 

She  Walked  to  the  Ship's  Side  and  Dropped  the  Body  into  the  Sea  .  1 44 
Then  He  Cast  Loose  the  Anchor  .        .        .       ...        .        .156 

They  were  Seen  to  Throw  Slaves  Overboard  Shackled  Together       .  172 
The  Slaves  on  the  Ship  had  Mutinied  .        ...        .        .192 

The   Human    Cargo   was    Under   the   Charge   of   the  Old  Rice-field 
Negroes 216 


xvii 


CHAPTER  I 

THE   TRADE   IN  THE   EARLIEST   DAYS 

The  Unnamed  Dutch  Slaver  of  1819— First  Slaver  Fitted  Out  in 
American  Waters  and  the  First  American-built  Slaver — 
When  Human  Beings  were  Frequently  a  Part  of  a  Ship's 
General  Cargo — How  a  Good  Priest,  through  a  Love  of 
Humanity,  Promoted  the  Traffic — Days  when  Christian 
Missionaries  Found  Profit  in  the  Trade,  and  It  Hurt  the 
Conscience  of  No  One  Engaged  in  It — Kings  and  Nobles 
as  Slave-Traders — A  Slaver  Contract  that  was  Consid 
ered  a  Magnificent  Triumph  of  Diplomacy — The  Yankee 
Slavers'  Successful  Stroke  for  Free  Trade  and  Sailors' 
Rights— Extent  of  the  Early  Traffic. 

ON  a  hot  day  late  in  the  month  of  August,  1619, 
while  the  people  of  the  little  British  settlement  called 
Jamestown,  in  what  is  now  the  State  of  Virginia,  were 
busily  engaged  in  the  work  of  establishing  homes  on 
the  borders  of  the  great  American  wilderness,  an 
alarm  was  raised  that  a  ship  was  coming  with  the  tide 
up  from  the  sea.  Only  one  more  startling  cry  than 
that  could  have  been  heard — a  warning  that  hostile 
Indians  were  coming ;  but  in  those  days,  when  the 
fighting  between  nations  nominally  at  peace  might 
cost  more  lives  than  were  lost  in  our  war  with  Spain, 
the  approach  of  an  unknown  ship,  to  a  settlement  as 
weak  as  Jamestown,  was  a  most  serious  matter.  It 
was  the  more  serious  for  the  reason  that  Spain,  in 

1 


2  THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

those  days,  laid  claim  to  all  of  North  America,  and 
was  threatening  to  come  to  the  Chesapeake  Bay  and 
lay  waste  the  settlement  there  as  an  encroachment 
upon  her  rights. 

The  stranger  was  a  queer-looking  craft,  if  we  may 
judge  her  by  modern  standards,  for  she  was,  as  all 
ships  then  were,  short  and  thick — bluff-bowed  and 
round  at  the  stern — while  she  towered  so  high  out  of 
water  at  each  end  that  the  term  "  forecastle,"  which 
was  then  and  is  now  applied  to  any  structure  at  the 
bow  of  a  ship,  was  a  word  of  obvious  significance. 
There  was  literally  a  castle  on  her  bow,  and  another, 
called  a  poop,  on  her  stern.  Her  sails,  too,  of  which 
she  carried,  doubtless,  two  on  the  fore  and  the  main 
masts,  and  one  on  the  mizzen,  were  like  great  bags 
bellying  out  before  the  wind.  When  compared  with 
the  flat  canvas  of  a  modern  ship  it  is  easy  to  see  that  one 
would  have  difficulty  in  securing  a  crew  for  such  a  ship 
in  these  days.  But  more  interesting  than  the  form  of 
either  hull  or  sail  was  the  row  of  black-muzzled  cannon 
that  projected  through  the  bulwarks  on  each  side ;  and 
altogether  it  is  not  mere  fancy  to  say  that  the  alarm  of 
such  a  ship  approaching  Jamestown  carried  tremors 
of  fear  to  the  breasts  of  the  weak,  and  added  throbs  to 
the  hearts  of  the  strong  as  they  hurried  to  get  their 
weapons  and  go  down  to  the  river  bank  to  receive 
her. 

But  as  the  stranger  drew  near,  the  trained  eyes  of 
the  colonists  saw  many  signs  to  allay  their  fears.  She 
was  flying  the  Dutch  flag,  for  one  thing,  and  the  Dutch 
were  then  the  leading  traders  of  the  world.  Moreover, 
it  was  apparent  that  her  cannon  were  neither  manned 
nor  cast  loose  for  action ;  the  attitudes  and  the  work 


THE  TRADE  IN  THE  EARLIEST  DAYS       3 

of  her  crew  told  convincingly  that  trade,  and  not  war, 
was  wanted,  and,  seeing  this,  the  ready  muskets  of  the 
colonists  were  laid  aside  that  a  friendly  welcome  might 
be  extended. 

Then  came  the  ship  to  the  shore,  where  her  lines 
were  made  fast  to  the  near-by  trees,  and  her  captain 
walked  over  a  gang-plank  to  greet  the  colonists  under 
the  wide-spread,  thick-leaved  branches,  and  tell  them 
that  he  had  brought  merchandise  to  exchange  for  the 
products  of  the  settlement. 

Few  more  interesting  ships  than  this  are  known  to 
the  history  of  America.  The  Mayflower  only,  of  all 
the  ships  that  followed  Columbus,  may  be  compared  to 
her,  and  that  by  way  of  contrast,  because  the  New 
England  ship  came  with  men  who  sought  a  form  of 
liberty,  while  the  Dutchman  came  to  introduce  a  kind 
of  slavery.  Among  the  articles  of  merchandise  that 
the  Dutch  captain  had  to  offer  the  colonists  were 
twenty  human  beings,  negroes  brought  from  the  coast 
of  Africa,  and  his  ship  was  probably  the  first  slave- 
trader  to  visit  what  is  now  the  coast  of  the  United 
States. 

From  a  sailor's  point  of  view  also  the  story  of  this 
slaver  is  remarkable;  in  fact,  it  is  one  of  the  most 
singular  stories  known  to  the  history  of  commerce. 
Thus,  we  know  that  she  hailed  from  Flushing,  and  the 
number  of  slaves  that  she  brought.  There  is  no  doubt 
about  her  shape  and  rig.  We  are  well  enough  as 
sured  as  to  where  she  landed,  and  we  are  even  justified 
in  saying  how  she  was  secured  to  the  river's  bank. 
There  is  an  old  record  containing  the  names  of  some  of 
the  slaves  she  landed.  But  her  name  and  the  name  of 
her  commander  have  been  lost  beyond  recovery.  She 


4  THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

appears  above  our  horizon  like  a  strange  sail  at  sea, 
showing  unmistakably  from  our  present  point  of 
view  that  something  is  wrong  with  her ;  we  pass  her 
close  enough  at  hand  to  see  on  her  decks  men  and 
women  in  distress  whom  we  are  wholly  unable  to  re 
lieve,  and  then  she  fades  away  in  the  mists  astern,  and 
is  lost  forever. 

We  are  indebted  to  John  Rolfe,  the  man  that  mar 
ried  the  Indian  maiden  Pocahontas  (and  so  became  the 
most  famous  squaw-man  in  history),  for  the  greater 
part  of  what  we  know  about  the  first  slave-trader  to 
visit  our  shores.  Rolfe  was  in  Jamestown  when  the 
Dutchman  came  to  Virginia  waters,  and  it  is  his  record 
that  says  :  "  a  dutch  man  of  warre  that  sold  us  twenty 
Negars"  came  to  Jamestown  late  in  August,  1619. 

In  other  accounts  this  ship  is  called  a  Dutch  trader, 
instead  of  a  "  man  of  warre,"  while  others  still  call  her 
a  privateer.  Taking  all  the  statements  together,  the 
truth  appears  to  be  that  she  was  built  as  a  cargo  car 
rier,  and  yet  was  armed,  and  had  a  license  permitting 
her  to  prey  on  the  commerce  of  the  enemies  of  Holland. 
Her  chief  business  was  as  a  trader,  but  incidentally  she 
was  a  lawful  privateer.  At  what  point  in  Africa,  or 
how,  she  obtained  the  negroes  is  not  known. 

The  story  of  how  she  happened  to  carry  her  slaves 
to  Virginia  is  of  especial  interest  here  because  it  in 
cludes  that  of  the  first  ship  fitted  in  United  States  ter 
ritory  for  the  slave  trade. 

In  the  year  1619  "the  rapacious  and  unscrupulous  " 
Captain  Samuel  Argall  was  ruler  of  the  colony  of  Vir 
ginia.  Argall  was  able,  energetic,  adroit,  and  con 
scienceless.  He  was  what  ward  politicians  would  call 
a  " heeler"  of  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  a  man  at  once 


THE    TRADE    IN    THE    EARLIEST    DAYS  5 

rich  and  unscrupulous.  Among  the  Earl's  possessions 
was  the  ship  Treasurer,  and  Argall  owned  a  share  of 
her. 

During  the  year  1619  the  Treasurer  came  to  Virginia, 
armed  as  a  privateer,  and  bearing  a  commission  from 
the  Duke  of  Savoy  permitting  her  to  cruise  against  the 
Spaniards.  Presumably  intending  such  a  cruise,  she 
cleared  out  for  the  West  Indies,  where,  as  her  log-book 
shows,  she  fell  in  with  a  Dutch  letter  of  marque  and 
told  him  that  slaves  were  wanted  in  Virginia. 

It  is  fair  to  presume  that  the  Dutchman  at  once 
headed  away  for  the  Chesapeake,  because  John  Pory, 
secretary  of  the  Virginia  colony,  in  a  letter  to  Sir 
Dudley  Carleton,  dated  September  13,  1619,  mentions 
"  the  man-of-war  of  Flushing,"  and  says :  "  The  oc 
casion  of  this  ship's  coming  hither  was  an  accidental 
consortship  in  the  West  Indies  with  the  Treasurer" 
He  adds  that  the  Dutchman  wanted  to  buy  provis 
ions,  "of  which  the  master  pleaded  that  his  vessel 
was  in  dire  need." 

It  is  a  matter  of  record  that  the  Treasurer  also 
brought  negro  slaves  to  Virginia,  and  a  woman  called 
Angela  was  sold  to  a  Mr.  Bennett.  A  record  of  her 
may  be  found  in  the  census  record  of  Virginia  made 
in  1625,  according  to  Hotten's  "Original  List  of  Emi 
grants,  etc." 

It  is  possible  that  the  Treasurer  returned  ahead  of 
the  Dutchman ;  but,  because  the  Dutchman  was  in 
need  of  food,  and  because  John  Rolfe  speaks  of  the 
Dutchman's  slaves  only,  it  is  fair  to  infer  that  the 
Dutchman  came  first. 

The  records  tell  why  the  Treasurer  landed  but  one 
slave.  Says  the  "Declaration"  of  the  Virginia  Coun- 


6  THE   AMERICAN    SLAVE-TRADE 

oil,  made  in  1623  :  "  Finding  Captain  Argall,  the  set- 
ter-of-her-out,  departed  thence,  she  withdrew  herself 
instantly  from  the  new  Governor' s  power,  and  went  to 
the  Somer  Islands,  then  discharged  her  booty,  which 
were  a  certain  number  of  negroes,  all  of  which,  even 
those  that  belonged  as  shares  unto  the  mariners 
(whereof  they  have  not  long  since  complained  in 
court),  were  taken  and  placed  on  the  said  Earl's 
lands,  as  belonging  to  his  lordship,  and  so  continue." 

It  is  perhaps  worth  mentioning  that  it  has  been 
asserted  that  the  slaves  ascribed  to  the  Dutchman 
really  came  from  the  Treasurer,  and  that  the  letters 
and  other  Virginia  documents  relating  to  the  matter 
were  deliberately  false,  because  the  Virginians  feared 
the  Spanish  would  come  to  avenge  the  raids  which 
the  Treasurer  had  made  in  the  West  Indies.  But  a 
careful  reading  of  all  the  available  matter  on  the  sub 
ject  shows  no  real  foundation  for  the  assertion. 

As  to  the  Treasurer* s  career,  a  word  more  must  be 
told,  because,  as  has  been  said,  she  was  the  first  slaver 
fitted  out  in  America.  She  had  visited  the  coast  occa 
sionally  as  a  trader  between  England  and  the  colonies 
since  1613,  but  had  not  been  in  the  slave-trade  until 
1619.  In  this  voyage  to  the  West  Indies  she  was 
"  manned  with  the  ablest  men  in  the  colony"  (see 
"  Declaration  "  of  1623),  but  on  reaching  Bermuda  she 
was  declared  to  be  unseaworthy.  Her  arms  were  taken 
out  of  her  and  she  was  broken  up.  The  robbing  of  her 
crew  was  a  natural  incident  of  the  trade,  and  in  after 
years  common  enough. 

One  more  question  as  to  the  first  slave-carrying 
ships  in  the  American  trade  remains  to  be  considered 
— -a  question  that  has  been  raised  in  connection  with 


THE  TKADE  IN  THE  EARLIEST  DAYS       7 

the  Spanish  settlement  of  Florida,  and  with  the  Norse 
discoveries  on  the  New  England  coast.  If  it  be  ad 
mitted  that  Eric  the  Red  landed  on  the  New  England 
coast,  then  it  is  probable  that  he  carried  a  woman 
slave  ashore  with  him.  That  the  Spaniards  had  negro 
slaves  in  their  settlement  in  Florida  is  not  now  dis 
puted.  Peter  Menendez,  who  held  a  commission  of 
the  King  of  Spain  for  a  settlement  in  Florida,  landed 
at  St.  Augustine  on  September  8,  1565.  He  undoubt 
edly  had  negro  slaves  in  his  party.  If  anyone  wishes 
to  make  an  exhaustive  study  of  the  matter  of  the 
landing  of  the  first  slaves  in  America,  he  can  find 
nearly  all  the  references  to  authorities  needed  in  the 
Magazine  of  American  History  for  November,  1891 ; 
but  the  question  of  interest  to  the  present  history  is 
not  when  the  first  slaves  were  brought  within  the 
present  limits  of  the  United  States,  but  when  the  first 
slave-ship  came  here  in  the  prosecution  of  its  traffic  in 
human  beings.  Certainly  neither  the  Viking  nor  the 
Spaniard  came  as  a  slave-merchant. 

The  first  American-built  slaver  of  which  there  is 
definite  record  was  the  ship  Desire,  a  vessel  of  120 
tons,  built  at  Marblehead,  in  1636.  It  does  not  appear 
that  she  was  in  the  trade  to  Africa,  but  Winthrop's 
Journal  has  the  following  under  the  date  of  February 
26,  1638: 

"  Mr.  Pierce  in  the  Salem  ship,  the  Desire,  returned 
from  the  West  Indies  after  seven  months.  He  had 
been  at  Providence,  and  brought  some  cotton  and  to 
bacco  and  negroes,  etc.,  from  thence,  and  salt  from 
Tortugas."  To  this  is  added  a  remark  worth  consid 
ering  :  "  Dry  fish  and  strong  liquors  are  the  only  com 
modities  for  those  parts." 


8  THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

Meantime  another  slave-ship  had  come  to  Virginia 
— the  Fortune,  Captain  Grey,  of  London.  While  on 
the  coast  of  Africa  she  had  fallen  in  with  an  Angola 
ship  loaded  with  slaves,  and  had  captured  her.  The 
slaves  were  carried  to  Virginia  and  exchanged  for 
eighty-five  hogsheads  and  five  butts  of  tobacco, 
which  were  sold  in  London.  This  was  in  1630. 

That  the  Dutch  introduced  African  slaves  as  soon  as 
they  obtained  a  foothold  in  America  need  not  be  said 
to  those  who  are  familiar  with  the  history  of  New 
York.  They  tried,  at  first,  after  the  custom  of  the 
times,  to  enslave  the  aboriginal  inhabitants,  but  the 
task  was  found  so  harassing  and  unprofitable  that 
they  soon  sought  supplies  of  blacks  from  Africa. 
In  fact  enslaving  red  men  led  to  such  trouble  that  a 
wall  was  built  across  the  lower  end  of  Manhattan 
Island,  where  Wall  street  is  now  found,  to  keep  red 
lovers  of  liberty  from  driving  the  Dutch  slave- catchers 
over  the  Battery  beach  into  the  bay. 

The  first  formal  mention  of  negro  slaves  in  the 
Dutch  Manhattan  documents  is  found  in  the  thirtieth 
clause  of  the  Charter  of  Liberties  and  Exemptions  of 
1629.  It  says:  "The  company  will  use  their  en 
deavors  to  supply  the  colonists  with  as  many  blacks  as 
they  conveniently  can."  The  New  Project  of  Liberties 
and  Exemptions  of  a  later  date  says  "  the  Incorpo 
rated  West  India  Company  shall  allot  to  each  Patroon 
twelve  Black  men  and  women  out  of  the  prizes  in 
which  Negroes  shall  be  found."  Unquestionably 
the  first  slave-ships  in  the  trade  to  Manhattan  Island 
were  privateers,  as  the  first  slaver  in  Virginia  was, 
or  they  were  men-of-war. 

Just  when  the  first  slaver  reached  New  York  is  no- 


THE    TRADE    IN    THE    EARLIEST    DAYS  9 

where  stated,  but  we  can  prove  that  it  was  within  a 
few  years  after  the  first  blacks  were  landed  in  Vir 
ginia.  In  1644  Director-General  Kieft  gave  liberty  to 
a  number  of  slaves  who  had  "served  the  company 
eighteen  or  nineteen  years."  That  is  to  say  they  had 
been  taken  into  the  company's  service  in  1625  or 
1626. 

Of  the  introduction  of  negro  slaves  at  other  points 
along  the  coast  nothing  need  be  said  here.  It  was 
in  those  earliest  years  a  very  small  trade.  There  were 
no  ships  engaged  in  carrying  slaves  exclusively  on  the 
high  seas,  so  far  as  the  record  shows,  until  about  1630, 
when  the  Fortune  captured  the  Angola  slaver.  The 
slaves  were  merely  a  part  of  the  " general  cargo"  of 
that  day.  In  1647  the  Dutch  on  Manhattan  Island 
wrote  of  "the  slave-trade,  that  hath  lain  so  long  dor 
mant,  to  the  great  damage  of  the  company."  In  1635 
the  whole  number  of  slaves  imported  into  Virginia 
was  but  twenty-six.  In  1642  only  seven  were  imported, 
and  in  1649  only  seventeen.  There  is  no  record  of  the 
total  importations,  but  it  is  certain  that  the  traffic  in 
all  the  colonies  combined  amounted  to  only  a  few 
hundred  previous  to  1650 — certainly  fewer  in  num 
ber  than  would  have  made  a  single  cargo  in  later 
years. 

Trivial  as  were  these  transactions  from  a  commercial 
point  of  view,  the  facts  are  all  of  importance  here,  not 
only  because  they  belonged  to  the  beginning  of  the 
trade,  but  because  they  are  helpful  to  an  understanding 
of  the  light  in  which  the  colonists  saw  the  trade.  Did 
the  colonists  think,  as  they  bargained  for  the  blacks, 
that  there  was  the  beginning  of  a  " fatal  traffic"  that 
was  "imposed  upon  them  from  without" — did  they 


10  THE  AME1UCAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

"  lay  aside  scruples  against  "  a  traffic  in  human  beings 
before  they  exchanged  their  products  for  the  "  twenty 
Negars"? 

The  student  who  looks  to  see  why  this  Virginia 
colony  was  established  may  see,  first  of  all,  in  "  The 
True  and  Sincere  Declaration,"  published  in  1609, 
what  the  colonists  said  was  their  chief  object.  It 
reads:  "  To  preach  and  baptize  into  the  Christian 
Religion,  and,  by  the  propagation  of  the  Gospell,  to  re 
cover  out  of  the  armes  of  the  Devill,  a  number  of  poore 
and  miserable  soules  wrapt  up  unto  death  in  almost  in 
vincible  ignorance  ;  to  endeavour  the  fulfilling  and  ac 
complishment  of  the  number  of  the  elect  which  shall 
be  gathered  out  of  all  corners  of  the  earth  and  to  add 
our  myte  to  the  Treasury  of  Heaven." 

They  believed  that  was  their  chief  object,  but  we 
have  another  view  of  their  habits  of  thought. 

In  a  letter  written  by  Captain  John  Smith  in  1614 
we  find  the  following  regarding  the  sport  of  fishing  in 
the  waters  of  the  colony  : 

"And  is  it  not  pretty  sport  to  pull  up  twopence, 
sixpence,  and  twelvepence,  as  fast  as  you  can  haul 
and  veer  a  line?" 

One  may  search  the  entire  literature  of  that  day 
without  finding  another  sentence  so  significant  of  the 
spirit  of  the  age  as  well  as  of  the  colonists — the  spirit 
that  measured  even  its  sport  in  fishing  by  counting 
the  market  value  of  each  fish  taken.  In  all  sincerity 
they  would  proclaim  that  missionary  work  was  the 
first  object  in  making  the  settlement ;  they  did  truly 
wish  to  add  their  "myte "to  the  number  of  "the 
elect,"  but  with  their  missionary  purposes  there  was 
found  a  proclaimed  and  unrepressed  determination 


THE    TKADE    IN    THE    EARLIEST    DAYS  H 

to  make  money.  They  had  religious  instructors  who 
turned  from  a  contemplation  of  the  gold-paved  streets 
of  their  heavenly  home  to  talk  of  pay  streaks  in  the 
mines  of  their  wilderness  home  beyond  the  sea. 
And  when  they  had  arrived,  they  laid  out  a  town  site, 
boomer  fashion,  after  which  there  was  "no  talk,  no 
hope,  no  work  but  dig  gold,  wash  gold,  refine  gold, 
loadegold." 

But,  alas,  the  dirt  did  not  pan  out.  They  sent  a 
cargo  of  glittering  stuff  home  in  the  first  Supply,  but 
it  was  worthless,  so  they  turned  to  "  pitch,  tar,  and 
soap  ashes"  ;  also  to  sassafras,  with  such  vigor  that 
even  the  "gentlemen  "  of  the  colony  went  to  work  with 
axes  and  thereby  blistered  their  soft  hands  until  they 
swore  wicked  oaths  "at  every  other  stroke"  of  their 
axes.  For  this  they  were  publicly  punished,  so  that 
they  were  led  to  hold  their  tongues,  commonly,  what 
ever  their  thoughts  might  be. 

But  "pitch,  tar,  and  soap  ashes"  also  failed  to 
make  them  rich,  or  even  comfortable,  and  the  colony 
was  at  the  point  of  absolute  extinction  when  John 
Rolfe,  the  squaw  man,  introduced  the  cultivation  of  to 
bacco  in  1612.  "With  tobacco  came,  at  last,  prosperity, 
but  only  at  a  terrible  price.  To  grow  the  crop  required 
the  severest  kind  of  toil,  and,  what  was  worse,  the  work 
had  to  be  done  under  conditions  that  proved  deadly  to 
the  colonists  of  every  class. 

With  these  facts  held  in  mind  let  us  recall  the 
further  fact  that  the  greater  part  of  the  chopping  and 
digging  was  done  by  "apprentices" — a  real  "wor king- 
class  "—a  class  of  men  (afterward  women  were  in 
cluded)  who  were  brought  from  their  homes  in  Eng 
land  under  contract  to  serve  for  a  stated  number  of 


12  THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

years,  and  were  sold  to  the  Virginia  planters.  The 
whole  colonial  labor  system  was  based  on  the  appren 
tice  system,  and  it  is  a  well-known  fact  that  many 
men  of  education  and  ability  came  to  the  colonies 
as  "  apprentices,"  and  were  sold  out  as  merchandise 
was. 

Even  that  law  of  Massachusetts  in  1641  so  often 
quoted  to  prove  that  the  colonists  there  were  opposed 
to  human  slavery  proves,  in  fact,  that  voluntary 
slavery  was  common.  It  says  :  ' '  There  shall  never 
be  any  bond  slavery  amongst  us,  unles  it  be  Lawfull 
captives,  taken  in  just  wars,  [or  such]  as  [shall]  will 
ingly  sell  themselves" 

Holding  in  mind  these  facts,  consider  next  the 
climate  of  the  tobacco-growing  region.  The  extinction 
of  the  colony  was  at  one  time  threatened.  Every 
immigrant  had  to  endure  the  "  seasoning"  fever,  and 
the  percentage  of  deaths  was  frightful. 

In  this  condition  of  affairs  came  a  trader  who  offered 
to  exchange  twenty  black  laborers  (who  would  need 
no  "  seasoning")  for  the  products  of  the  land  which 
the  colonists  had  in  abundance. 

Were  men  who  had  never  obtained  a  laborer  save  by 
purchase,  and  men  who  themselves  had  voluntarily 
submitted  to  being  bought  and  sold,  to  have  their 
consciences  afflicted  at  the  thought  of  buying  these 
strangers  ?  Such  an  idea  could  not  enter  their  heads. 
The  fact  is  that  the  English  Missionary  Society  that, 
in  the  seventeenth  century,  supplied  all  English-Amer 
ican  colonies  with  pious  pabulum,  owned  a  plantation 
in  Barbadoes  and  worked  it  with  slaves,  while  the 
great  Quaker  Fox,  after  a  visit  to  the  West  Indies, 
had  nothing  to  say  about  the  principle  involved  in  the 


THE    TEADE    IN    THE    EARLIEST    DAYS  13 

traffic,  although  he  was  careful  to  denounce  the  cruel 
treatment  of  slaves. 

One  more  question  in  connection  with  this  introduc 
tion  of  negro  slaves  must  be  considered  briefly.  Did 
it  pay?  Let  the  facts  answer.  The  planters  in  the 
tobacco,  rice,  cotton,  and  sugar  regions  not  only  in 
creased  in  number  from  year  to  year,  but  they  built 
finer  houses,  bought  finer  clothes  and  books,  and  lived 
in  more  expensive  fashion  from  generation  to  genera 
tion. 

Thus  we  read:  "  Everything  is  by  God's  blessing 
in  a  good  condition ;  and  in  consequence  of  the  em 
ployment  of  the  negroes,  which  were  from  time  to  time 
introduced  from  Angola  into  Brazil,  in  planting  grain, 
flour  is  produced  in  such  quantity  that  what  always 
used  to  cost  eight  or  ten  guilders  still  continues  to  be 
sold  at  the  rate  of  six  stivers."  *  Such  quotations 
may  be  multiplied  almost  indefinitely.  In  Georgia, 
the  one  colony  where  no  slaves  were  allowed,  in  early 
days,  the  planters  became  so  eager  for  them  that  their 
regular  toast  when  drinking  together  was  "  Here's 
for  the  one  thing  needful ! " 

la  short,  to  sum  up  the  facts,  slaves  were  introduced 
into  United  States  territory  in  answer  to  a  demand 
for  labor.  They  were  purchased  by  men  who  were  ac 
customed  to  the  purchase  and  sale  of  laborers,  and  no 
one's  conscience  was  in  any  way  hurt  by  the  transac 
tion.  It  was  a  good  business  proposition  for  that  day, 
and  for  two  centuries,  at  least,  thereafter. 

As  for  the  early  West  India  traffic,  for  which  but 
brief  space  can  be  allowed,  it  appears  that  as  early  as 
1503  negroes  were  carried  to  Hayti  and  put  at  work 

*  See  Vol.  I.,  167,  New  York  Colonial  Documents. 


14  THE   AMERICAN    SLAVE-TRADE 

on  the  plantations  there.  Herrera  writes  of  these  ne 
groes  that  they  "  prospered  so  much  in  the  colony  that 
it  was  the  opinion  that  unless  a  negro  should  happen 
to  be  hung  he  would  never  die,  for  as  yet  none  had 
been  known  to  perish  from  infirmity. "  Here  was  the 
very  inception  of  the  American  trade.  When  the 
Spaniards  tried  enslaving  the  aborigines  of  the  island, 
the  unfortunate  red  men  withered  like  green  corn 
under  the  hot  winds  of  the  unirrigated  American 
desert.  Bartholomew  de  las  Casas,  filled  with  pity  for 
the  dying  Indian  race,  rose  up  in  its  defence.  Good 
people  have  since  been  moved  to  apologize  for  and  ex 
plain  what  this  Dominican  did,  but  his  acts  need  no 
apology  from  any  man.  To  save  the  race  unfit  for 
labor  there,  the  Dominican  proposed  substituting  ne 
groes  who  were  both  physically  and  mentally  capable 
of  enduring  even  the  work  of  digging  gold  in  the  tor 
rid  zone  under  the  devil-hearted  Spaniards  of  that  day. 

Having  the  true  state  of  affairs  placed  before  him  by 
the  humane  Dominican,  "  in  the  year  1510  the  King  of 
Spain  ordered  fifty  slaves  to  be  sent  to  Hispaniola  to 
work  in  the  gold  mines. "  So  says  Herrera.  That 
was  the  beginning  of  the  systematic  importation  of 
Africans  into- the  Spanish  West  Indies.  On  the  whole, 
the  Spanish- American  slave-trade  was,  at  its  inception, 
in  the  interest  of  humanity,  shocking  as  that  asser 
tion  may  seem  at  first  glance. 

That  the  trade  begun  in  1510  did  not  reach  our 
shores  until  1619  is  readily  explained  by  the  fact  that 
our  shores  were  not  permanently  settled  by  the  whites 
until  nearly  a  century  after  that  first  slave  cargo  was 
sent  out. 

Of  the  Spanish  slave-trade  in  that  first  century  we 


THE    TRADE    IN    THE    EARLIEST    DAYS  15 

know  little,  nor  are  the  facts  necessary  to  the  interest 
or  the  principles  of  this  history,  but  we  must  not  omit 
to  record  that  Sir  John  Hawkins,  the  famous  British 
navigator,  made  the  first  Anglo-Saxon  venture  in  the 
trade  in  1562.  In  his  first  voyage  he  descended  on  the 
coast  of  Africa,  where  he  took,  partly  in  trade  and 
partly  by  violence,  a  cargo  of  slaves,  of  whom  he 
sold  three  hundred  in  the  West  Indies,  at  a  great 
profit. 

When  Queen  Elizabeth  heard  this  story  on  his  re 
turn  to  England,  she  declared  that  "  it  would  be  de 
testable  and  call  down  the  vengeance  of  heaven  upon 
the  undertakers  "  if  any  more  negroes  were  taken  by 
violence ;  but  this  opinion  did  not  prevent  Hawkins 
repeating  the  operation,  nor  did  it  keep  Elizabeth  from 
knighting  him  for  his  success. 

Of  the  trade  in  the  seventeenth  century  we  know 
more  because  our  ancestors  the  English  then  entered 
it,  and  some  of  the  documents  relating  to  it  have  been 
preserved.  The  cultivation  of  sugar-cane,  which  was 
undertaken  with  success  in  Barbadoes  in  1641,  gave 
the  first  impulse  to  the  slave-trade  in  the  British  West 
Indies,  and  in  1662,  when  the  "  company  of  Royal  Ad 
ventures  Trading  to  Africa  "  was  chartered  by  Charles 
II.,  the  company  bound  itself  to  land  three  thousand 
negro  slaves  per  year  in  the  British  West  India 
islands. 

The  Queen  dowager  and  he  who  was  to  be  James 
II.  both  held  stock  in  this  company.  This  company 
built  some  forts  on  the  African  coast,  as  good  points 
for  buying  slaves,  but  in  1672  sold  out  to  a  new  com 
pany  for  £34,000.  It  had  lost  a  large  sum  of  money. 
And  it  is  worth  noting  that  this  loss  was  due  to  the 


16  THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

success  of  interloping  owners  of  single  ships  who  un 
derstood  the  trade  and  knew  the  slave-coast  and  the 
West  India  market.  Good  people  have  supposed  that 
a  special  interference  of  Divine  providence  ruined  the 
company. 

The  new  company  was  called  the  Royal  Assiento. 
It  had  bought  out  the  old  one,  used  guns  on  the  out 
side  traders,  but  the  private  traders,  "  especially  the 
American  merchants,"  made  such  persistent  appeals 
that  Parliament  was  obliged  to  come  to  their  relief. 

The  company  wanted  to  maintain  a  monopoly  intact, 
and  the  English  private  trader  wanted  the  monop 
oly  abolished.  The  keen  Yankees  suggested  that  "  it 
would  be  a  great  benefit  to  the  Kingdom  to  secure  the 
trade  by  maintaining  Forts  and  Castles  there,  with  an 
equal  duty  upon  all  Goods  exported.''  This  com 
promise  was  adopted.  Parliament  declared  that  the 
slave-trade  was  "  highly  Beneficial  and  Advantageous 
to  this  Kingdom,  and  to  the  Plantations  and  Colonies 
thereunto  belonging,"  and  then  enacted  that  private 
ships  should  be  free  to  enter  the  trade  on  the  payment 
of  ten  per  cent,  duty  on  English  goods  exported  to 
Africa.  The  tax  money  was  used  to  maintain  forts  on 
the  African  coast. 

Those  who  are  familiar  with  American  naval  history 
will  find  especial  interest  in  the  above  account  for  the 
reason  that  it  was  the  first  Yankee  conflict  for  "  Free 
Trade  and  Sailors'  Rights." 

Then  the  British  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  reached 
out  for  the  trade  to  the  Spanish  colonies,  which  Spain 
in  those  days  farmed  out  to  other  countries.  This 
was  obtained  by  what  is  known  as  the  Assiento  Treaty 
of  March  13,  1713. 


THE    TKADE    IN    THE    EARLIEST    DAYS  17 

Only  the  Royal  company  was  named  in  the  agree 
ment,  bufc  all  British  traders  were  to  participate  in  the 
trade.  It  was  contracted  on  the  part  of  the  Spanish 
that  they  would  take  at  least  4,800  negroes  a  year  for 
thirty  years,  and  that  the  company  might  sell  as 
many  more  as  it  could  for  twenty-five  years  at  any 
Spanish-American  port  except  three.  In  return  for 
this  the  company  paid  200,000  crowns  spot  cash, 
a  duty  of  33J  crowns  on  each  slave  landed,  and  a 
quarter  of  its  profits  each  to  the  Spanish  and  the 
British  kings. 

This  contract  is  found  in  Article  16  of  the  Treatjr 
of  Utrecht,  which  was  signed  on  April  11,  1713. 
Although  England  obtained  by  this  treaty  the 
Hudson  Bay  Territory,  Acadia,  Newfoundland,  and 
Gibraltar,  this  slave-trade  article  "was  regarded  as 
one  of  the  greatest  triumphs  of  the  pacification  of 
1713." 

At  the  time  of  this  treaty  London  and  Bristol  were 
the  slave-ship  ports  of  England,  and  Newport  was  the 
chief  one  in  America.  Liverpool  entered  the  slave 
trade  previous  to  1730,  with  "  a  single  barque  of  thirty 
tons." 

The  vessel  had  half  the  capacity  of  one  of  the  sailing 
lighters  common  to  New  York  Harbor.  An  Erie  Canal 
boat  carries  two  hundred  and  forty  tons.  But  the 
little  bark  was  profitable,  and  the  trade  grew  after 
1731  until  in  1752  Liverpool  had  eighty-seven  vessels 
in  the  trade,  Bristol  one  hundred  and  fifty-seven,  and 
London  one  hundred  and  thirty -five.  The  Liverpool 
merchants  built  such  sharp  and  swift  ships  for  the 
trade  that  a  special  wet  dock,  that  would  keep  them 
afloat  during  ebb  tide  while  in  that  port,  had  to 
2 


18  THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

be  built  for  them.  The  present  great  dock  system 
of  Liverpool  originated  in  the  needs  of  the  slave- 
traders. 

In  those  days  the  ship-chandlers  of  Liverpool  made 
special  displays  in  their  windows  of  such  things  as 
handcuffs,  leg-shackles,  iron  collars,  short  and  long 
chains,  and  furnaces  and  copper  kettles  designed  for 
slavers'  use.  The  newspapers  were  full  of  advertise 
ments  of  slaves  and  slaver  goods.  "  The  young  bloods 
of  the  town  deemed  it  fine  amusement  to  circulate 
handbills  in  which  negro  girls  were  offered  for  sale." 
An  artist  of  wide  repute — Stothard — painted  "The 
voyage  of  the  Sable  Venus  from  Angola  to  the  West 
Indies."  The  Merchants'  Exchange,  or  Town  Hall, 
as  it  was  called,  was  ornamented  in  a  way  that 
was  strikingly  appropriate,  for  "  between  the  capi 
tals  runs  an  entablature  or  fillet,  on  which  are 
placed  in  base-relief  the  busts  of  blackamoors  and 
elephants,  with  the  teeth  of  the  latter,  with  such 
like  emblematical  figures  representing  the  African 
trade  and  commerce."  The  merchants  of  Liverpool 
needed  no  Ruskin  to  suggest  " pendant  purses"  for 
decorating  a  frieze,  or  "  pillars  broad  at  the  base, 
for  the  sticking  of  bills,"  when  they  were  building 
a  market-place. 

In  America  the  New  England  colonies  took  the  lead 
in  the  slave-trade.  Barefooted  boys  waded  through 
the  snow  to  find  berths  in  the  forecastles  of  the  colony 
ships,  and,  hard  as  sailor  life  was  then,  they  found 
more  comforts  afloat  than  on  the  farms  they  left  be 
hind.  And  once  afloat  the  Yankee  boy  worked  his 
way  aft  as  readily  as  he  climbed  the  ratlines  when 
ordered  to  reef  topsails. 


THE    TRADE    IN    THE    EARLIEST    DAYS  19 

"  At  the  very  birth  of  foreign  commerce  from  New 
England  ports,"  says  one  writer,*  "  the  African  slave 
trade  became  a  regular  business."  The  Desire,  as 
already  mentioned,  was  a  slaver.  "The  ships  which 
took  cargoes  of  staves  and  fish  to  Madeira  and  the 
Canaries  were  accustomed  to  touch  on  the  coast  of 
Guinea  to  trade  for  negroes,  who  were  carried  generally 
to  Barbadoes,  or  the  other  English  islands  of  the  West 
Indies." 

The  Massachusetts  statute  of  1705,  which  is  curiously 
enough  often  quoted  as  showing  that  the  people  there 
were  opposed  to  the  slave-trade,  was  carefully  worded 
to  promote  the  trade.  It  did,  indeed,  lay  a  tax  of  four 
pounds  on  each  negro  imported,  but  "  a  drawback  was 
allowed  upon  exportation."  "The  harbors  of  New 
England  were  thus  offered  as  a  free  exchange-mart  for 
slavers." 

In  Rhode  Island  "Governor  Cranston,  as  early  as 
1708,  reported  that  between  1698  and  1708  one  hun 
dred  and  three  vessels  were  built  in  that  State,  all  of 
which  were  trading  to  the  West  Indies  and  the  South 
ern  colonies.  They  took  out  lumber  and  brought  back 
molasses"  in  the  direct  trade,  but  "in  most  cases 
made  a  slave  voyage  in  between.' ' 

According  to  the  "Reminiscences  of  Samuel  Hop 
kins,"  Rhode  Island  had  one  hundred  and  fifty  vessels 
in  the  African  slave-trade  in  1770.  Hopkins  wrote  in 
that  year  saying :  "  Rhode  Island  has  been  more 
deeply  interested  in  the  slave-trade,  and  has  enslaved 
more  Africans  than  any  other  colony  in  New  Eng 
land." 

In  1787  he  wrote  again:  "This   trade  in  human 

*  History  of  Slavery  in  Massachusetts,  by  Geo.  H.  Moore. 


20  THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

species  has  been  the  first  wheel  of  commerce  in  New 
port,  on  which  every  other  movement  in  business  has 
depended.  That  town  has  been  built  up,  and  flour 
ished  in  times  past"  on  the  slave-trade,  "and  by  it 
[the  inhabitants]  have  gotten  most  of  their  wealth 
and  riches." 


CHAPTER   II 

OLD-TIME  SLAVER  CAPTAINS   AND  THEIR  SHIPS 

David  Lindsay  as  a  Typical  American  Slaver  of  the  Eighteenth 
Century— With  a  Rotten  Ship  that  Showed  Daylight 
Through  Her  Seams  "  Al  Round  Her  Bow  Under  Deck  " 
He  Reached  the  Slave  Coast,  Gathered  His  Cargo  in  Spite 
of  Fevers,  Deaths  in  the  Crew,  and  Competition,  and  Finally 
Landed  at  Barbadoes  with  "All  in  Helth  and  Fatt"— An 
Astrologer's  Chart  for  a  Slaver's  Voyage — Tales  of  the 
Slaver  Vikings  of  Liverpool — Debt  of  Early  American 
Commerce  to  the  Slave  Trade — John  Paul  Jones  a  Slaver. 

DETAILS  of  the  characters  of  the  men  and  of  the 
ships  that  were  engaged  in  the  American  slave-trade 
during  the  eighteenth  century  are  lamentably  hard  to 
find  in  these  days,  but  fortunately  such  as  remain  to 
us  are  sufficiently  graphic  and  significant. 

For  a  type  of  the  Yankee  slavers  of  the  day  we  may 
very  well  choose  Captain  David  Lindsay,  who  hailed 
from  Newport,  E.  I.,  in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  when  that  town  was  one  of  the  liveliest  of 
American  ports.  His  story  has  been  preserved  in  a 
considerable  number  of  letters  and  documents  that 
were  printed  in  the  American  Historical  Record  some 
years  ago. 

The  earliest  mention  of  Captain  Lindsay's  existence 
is  found  in  a  letter  that  comes  literally  from  the  sea — 
a  letter  that  is  dated  "  June  ye  13  1740  at  Sea  Latt.  8° 

21 


22  THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

30'  N.  Long.  39°  30'  W."  It  was  written  by  one  George 
Scott,  himself  a  slaver  captain,  and  it  contains  a  vari 
ety  of  matters  of  interest  to  the  slave-trade  in  addition 
to  the  references  to  Captain  Lindsay.  It  reads  as 
follows : 

"  GENTLEMEN  : — Meeting  with  this  opportunity  I  was  very 
glad  to  acquaint  you  of  our  miserable  voyage.  We  left 
Anamaboe  ye  8th  of  May,  with  most  of  our  people  and  slaves 
sick.  We  have  lost  29  slaves.  Our  purchase  was  129.  My 
negro  Bonner  is  ded ;  the  slaves  we  have  left  is  now  all  re 
covered.  We  have  five  that  swell'd  and  how  it  will  be  with 
them  I  can't  tell.  We  have  one-third  of  dry  cargo  left,  and 
two  hhds.  rum.  If  I  had  staid  there  for  it  and  sold  I  believe 
I  should  have  lost  all  our  slaves.  I  think  to  proceed  to 
Antigo  and  fit  ye  sloop  and  take  ye  other  trial  on  the  coast. 
It  will  not  do  to  give  up  for  one  bad  bout.  If  I  go  directly 
back  I'll  sell  ye  rum  for  gold,  if  I  gitt  but  twenty  pence  for  it 
before  I'll  by  slaves.  The  slaves  that  died,  I  believe  there  was 
one  above  twenty-two  years  old  and  none  under  fourteen.  I 
have  sent  by  Captain  Lindsay  sixteen  ounces  of  gold,  which 
is  all.  I  wrote  you  by  Capt.  Kinnecutt,  who  sail'd  ye  10th 
April.  I  have  repented  a  hundred  times  ye  bying  of  them 
dry  goods.  Had  we  laid  out  two  thousand  pound  in  rum 
bread  and  flour,  it  would  [have]  purchased  more  in  value  than 
all  our  dry  goods.  I  have  paid  a  good  part  of  the  wages. 
My  serviss  to  all  friends,  pray  excuse  all  blunders,  for  I  am 
now  aboard  Capt.  Lindsay  and  in  haste  to  gitt  aboard." 

Observing,  by  the  way,  that  Captain  Scott  was  de 
termined  to  "  fit  ye  sloop  and  take  ye  other  trial  on  the 
coast" — that  he  was  a  man  of  pluck  himself — the  ref 
erences  to  Lindsay  mean  much  to  a  sailor. 

Scott  was  more  than  a  month  out  from  the  African 
coast  and  yet  had  covered  but  thirty  degrees  of  west 
longitude.  Then  along  comes  a  vessel,  commanded  by 


OLD-TIME    SLAVES    CAPTAINS    AND    THEIR    SHIPS     23 

Captain  Lindsay,  that  is  also  bound  west,  and  imme 
diately  Captain  Scott  not  only  writes  a  letter  to  the 
owners  of  his  ship,  which  he  gives  to  Lindsay  to 
carry,  but  he  also  entrusts  all  the  gold-dust  he  had 
obtained  to  the  same  hand. 

Manifestly  Lindsay  must  have  had  a  fast  ship,  and 
he  was  a  man  known  to  make  quicker  voyages,  at 
least,  than  Scott.  What  is  of  equal  importance, 
Lindsay  must  have  had  a  reputation  as  an  honest 
man.  Our  introduction  to  Lindsay,  though  it  comes 
from  an  unknown  slaver  and  out  of  the  sea,  is  decid 
edly  in  his  favor. 

The  next  reference  to  Lindsay  in  these  documents 
is  in  1752,  when  he  was  in  command  of  the  brigantine 
Sanderson^  belonging  to  William  Johnson,  of  New 
port,  R.  I.  The  register  of  the  vessel  has  been  pre 
served,  and  reads  in  part  : 

"The  Brigantine  Sanderson,  whereof  David  Lindsay  is  at 
present  master,  being  a  square  stern'd  vessel  of  the  burfchen 
of  about  forty  tons,  was  built  at  Portsmouth,  in  the  colony 
aforesaid,  in  the  year  Seventeen  Hundred  and  Forty-five,  and 
that  this  deponent  at  present  is  sole  owner  thereof,  and  that 
no  Foreigner,  directly  or  indirectly,  hath  any  share  or  part 
or  interest  therein."  WILLIAM  JOHNSON. 

Not  only  was  she  small — there  are  few,  if  any,  of 
the  Hudson  River  brick  schooners  that  will  not  carry 
more  cargo — she  was  a  cheaply  built  vessel,  as  appears 
from  another  document  which  shows  that  during  the 
year  she  was  built  she  was  offered  for  sale  for  £450, 
when  the  cost  of  building  a  first-class  ship  varied  from 
£24  to  £27  per  ton  register. 

Finding  no  sale  for  her  she  was  kept  going,  and  in 
the  year  1752,  with  Lindsay  in  command,  she  went  to 


24  THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TEADE 

the  West  Indies  for  molasses,  whence  Lindsay  wrote 
home  that  she  was  "tite  as  yett."  She  was  probably 
still  "tite"  on  her  return  to  Newport,  for  she  was  at 
once  loaded  for  Africa,  where  she  arrived  in  due  time, 
and  it  is  then  that  we  learn  what  kind  of  pluck  Lind 
say  had.  In  a  letter  dated-  "Anamaboe  28th  Feby 
1753"  he  says: 

"  GENTLEMEN  : — This  third  of  mine  to  you  and  now  I  am  to 
Lett  you  know  my  proceed'gs  sense  my  last,  Dated  3d  Jany, 
&  I  have  Gott  13  or  14  hhds  of  rum  yet  Left  abord,  and  God 
noes  when  I  shall  Gett  clear  of  it.  Ye  traid  is  so  dull  it  is 
actually  a  noof  to  make  a  man  creasey.  My  cheefe  mate  after 
making  four  or  five  Trips  in  the  boat  was  taken  sick  &  Re- 
mains  very  bad  yett :  then  I  sent  Mr.  Taylor  &  lie  Gott  not 
well  &  three  more  of  my  men  has  been  sick.  James  Dixon  is 
not  well  now  and  wors  than  yt  have  wore  out  my  small  cable 
also  oakam  &  have  been  oblige  to  buy  one  heare,  for  I  thought 
the  concequance  of  yr  Intrust  on  bord  this  vesiel  was  Two 
great  to  Rusk  without  a  cable  to  trust,  therefore  I  begg  you 
not  Blaim  me  in  so  doeing.  I  should  be  glad  I  cood  come 
Rite  home  with  my  slaves,  for  my  vesiel  will  not  last  to  pro 
ceed  farr.  We  can  see  daylight  al  round  her  bow  under  deck. 
However  I  hope  She  will  carry  me  safe  home  once  more.  I 
need  not  inlarge.  Heare  lyes  Captains  hamlet,  James  Jepson, 
Carpenter,  Butler  &  Lindsay.  Gardner  is  dun.  firginson  is 
Gon  to  Lewarcl.  All  these  is  Rum  Ships,  butler  is  in  a  brig 
with  150  hhds  from  Barbadoes,  belongs  to  Cape  Coast  Castle. 
I've  sent  a  Small  boye  to  my  wife.  I  conclude  with  my  best 
Endeavors  for  Intrust.  Gentlemen,  your  faithful  Servant  at 
com'md  "DAVID  LINDSAY. 

"  N.  B.  on  the  whole,  I  never  had  so  much  Trouble  in  all 
my  voiges.  I  shall  rite  to  barbadoes  in  a  few  days." 

Mr.  Taylor  was  the  second  officer.  Both  first  and 
second  were  in  their  bunks,  and  three  of  the  men  in 


BRINGING  ONE  THAT  WAS   BOUND  AND  GAGGED. 

See  page  52. 


OLD-TIME    SLAVEE    CAPTAINS    AND    THEIK    SHIPS     25 

the  forecastle  were  sick.  Terribly  short-handed,  with 
slaves  in  the  hold  likely  to  rise  up  and  strike  for  free 
dom  in  case  they  learned  this  fact,  and  with  the  prob 
ability  that  others  of  the  crew  would  take  the  fever, 
Captain  Lindsay  found  himself  in  a  serious  strait,  but, 
worse  than  all  that,  "he  could  see  daylight  al  round 
her  bow  under  deck." 

And  yet  Captain  Lindsay  came  up  from  that  fear 
some  look  at  the  open  seams  of  his  vessel  and  went  on 
loading  her  for  the  long  voyage  across  the  Atlantic. 

If  we  will  but  look  at  the  case  in  the  light  of  that 
day  the  courage,  the  fortitude,  of  the  stout-hearted 
old  skipper  was  inspiring.  Nor  shall  we  fail  to  observe 
his  though  tfulness  for  the  wife  that  would  hear  of  the 
condition  of  the  rotten  ship  with  quaking  fears. 

So  it  is  with  a  feeling  of  relief,  and  with  increased 
admiration  for  his  pluck,  that  we  find  a  letter  which 
shows  that  he  reached  Barbadoes  safely  after  a  most 
perilous  voyage ;  our  admiration  is  all  the  greater 
because  the  perils  are  described  so  simply.  The  letter 
is  as  follows : 

"  BARBADOES,  June  17th,  K  S.  1753. 

"  GENTLE'N  : — These  are  to  acqt  of  my  arivel  heare  ye  Day 
before  yesterday  in  10  weeks  from  Anamaboe.  I  met  on  my 
passage  22  days  of  very  squally  winds  &  continued  Rains,  so 
that  it  beat  my  sails  alto  pieces,  soe  that  I  was  oblige  Several 
Days  to  have  sails  onbent  to  mend  them.  The  vesiel,  Likwise 
is  all  open  Round  her  bows  under  deck.  For  these  Reasons 
am  oblige  to  enter  my  vesiel  heare  and  have  valued  myself  on 
Mr.  Elias  Meriveal,  who  is  to  despatch  me  in  three  or  four 
weeks'  Time.  My  slaves  is  not  landed  yet :  they  are  56  in 
number  for  owners,  all  in  helth  &  fatt.  I  lost  one  small  gall. 
I've  got  40  oz  gould  dust  &  eight  or  nine  hundred  weight 
Maligabar  pepper  for  owners. 


26  THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

"  Not  to  Inlarge,  shall  rite  in  a  day  or  2.  We  are  all  well 
on  bord.  Mr.  Sanford  died  the  3d  day  of  March,  &  one  John 
Wood  who  went  in  ye  boat  with  him,  died  ye  3d  of  April,  at 
sea.  I  left  Capt.  Hamblet  at  Cape  Coast,  sick.  His  slaves 
had  rose  &  they  lost  the  best  of  what  they  had.  Heare  is  no 
slaves  at  market  now." 

The  reader  who  knows  the  sea  will  fully  appreciate 
the  condition  of  that  tiny  ship  during  those  U22  days 
of  very  squally  winds  " — the  tiny  ship  that  was  "  open 
all  Round  her  bows  under  deck."  For  she  was  short- 
handed  through  deaths  and  sickness,  and  yet  her 
pumps  had  to  be  kept  going  during  all  that  time, 
while  several  days  were  spent  in  repairing  sails  that 
the  winds  had  blown  to  pieces. 

Nor  does  this  letter  tell  us  of  fortitude  alone,  for  it 
is  a  significant  fact  that  Lindsay  "  lost  one  small  gall" 
only,  while  all  the  rest  were  landed  "in  helth  &  fatt." 
They  had  been  cared  for  in  kindly  fashion.  The  facts 
seems  to  show  that  Lindsay  was  superior  to  the  average 
slaver  of  his  day.  It  was  then  a  lawful  trade,  and  we 
have  testimony  that  it  was  "very  genteel."  More 
important  still,  it  was  a  trade  that,  more  than  all 
others,  taxed  the  trading  ability,  the  patience,  the  skill 
as  a  seaman  and  the  fortitude  of  the  men  engaged  in 
it ;  also,  it  was,  when  successfully  carried  on,  the  most 
profitable  branch  of  commerce.  Naturally  the  most 
capable  men  of  the  sea  were  called  to  this  trade.  In 
short,  Lindsay  was  a  type  of  the  race  of  Yankee 
slaver  captains. 

With  all  these  facts  in  mind  it  is  amusing  to  turn 
to  one  other  characteristic  of  this  hard-headed  old 
slaver.  Before  starting  on  this  eventful  voyage  he 
must  needs  consult  an  astrologer,  or  conjurer,  as  the 


OLD-TIME    SLAVER    CAPTAINS    AND    THEIR    SHIPS      27 

seers  of  the  time  were  often  called,  to  learn  the  day 
and  hour  when  the  ship  must  sail  in  order  to  have  all 


the  kindly  influences  of  the  heavenly  bodies  in  her 
favor.  Fortunately  the  chart  which  he  obtained  has 
been  preserved,  and  we  know  from  it  that  "D.  L." 


28  THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

sailed  "for  Guinea  at  11.32  o'clock  on  Aug.  22d, 
1752." 

Of  the  English  captains  engaged  in  the  American 
trade  there  was  Captain  "  Billy"  Boates,  also  called 
"  William  Boates,  Esq.,  whose  extensive  transactions 
in  the  commercial  world  rendered  him  a  most  useful 
member  of  society,"  to  quote  an  obituary  notice  of 
the  man  from  a  Liverpool  paper.  Captain  Boates  was 
a  waif.  His  mother  or  her  friends  cast  him  adrift  in 
a  Liverpool  harbor  boat  a  few  hours  after  his  birth.  He 
was  picked  up,  reared  in  an  orphan  asylum,  appren 
ticed  to  a  ship  master,  and  then  began  a  career  that 
showed  the  kind  of  stock  from  which  he  sprang. 
From  the  forecastle  to  the  after-cabin  required  but 
three  steps  easily  taken.  From  the  cabin  to  the  count 
ing  house  was  a  step  longer  than  the  three  preceding 
taken  together  ;  but  he  made  the  leap. 

In  the  Knight  he  sailed  from  Anamaboe  on  Janu- 
uary  6,  1758,  with  three  hundred  and  ninety-eight 
negroes,  of  whom,  after  a  voyage  that  lasted  less  than 
six  weeks,  he  landed  three  hundred  and  sixty  at 
Jamaica.  That  was  a  voyage  worth  recording  for  its 
speed  alone  ;  but  off  the  Leeward  Islands  the  KnigJit 
fell  in  with  a  French  privateer  that  carried  "  twelve 
carriage  guns  and  full  of  men,  which  attempted  to 
board  him  several  times." 

The  odds  against  Captain  "Billy"  were  tremen 
dous,  but  what  he  lacked  in  men  and  arms  he  made 
up  by  his  magnificent  pluck.  The  privateersmen 
swarmed  to  his  deck,  "but  never  a  Dago  that  got 
over  the  rail  lived  to  return." 

More  famous  still  as  a  fighter  was  Captain  Hugh 
Crow,  the  one-eyed  slaver  of  Liverpool,  "one  of  the 


OLD-TIME    SLAVER    CAPTAINS    AND    THEIR    SHIPS     39 

bravest,  shrewdest,  quaintest  and  most  humorous  old 
sea-dogs  that  ever  breathed"  ;  but  he  was  of  a  later 
date  than  Lindsay  or  Boates,  being,  in  fact,  captain  of 
the  last  lawful  Liverpool  slaver.  One  would  like  to 
tell  his  whole  story,  but  space  can  be  spared  only  to 
say  that  when  in  the  slaver  Mary  he  was  attacked  at 
night  by  two  sloops-of-war,  each  of  which  was  of  far 
superior  force.  Captain  Hugh  supposed  they  were 
Frenchmen,  and,  calling  his  men  to  quarters,  for  six 
hours  fought  off  the  determined  attacks  of  both  men- 
o'-war.  And  then  when  daylight  came  he  found  they 
were  British  sloops  at  that.  They  had  supposed  that 
he  was  French.  All  things  considered,  that  was  the 
most  splendid  battle  known  to  the  history  of  "peace 
ful  commerce." 

Indeed  as  the  most  important  branch  of  British  com 
merce — the  commerce  of  the  new  England  as  well  as 
the  old  England — the  slave-trade  became  the  chief 
nursery  of  British  seamen.  The  instincts  inherited 
from  viking  ancestors  were  fostered  and  ancouraged 
there.  It  must  be  frankly  admitted  that  not  only  did 
the  boasted  prosperity  of  both  English  and  American 
over-sea  commerce  have  its  foundation  in  the  slave- 
trade,  but  also  that  the  magnificent  qualities  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  naval  seamen  of  the  eighteenth  century 
were  nourished  in  the  tiny  traders,  "  of  an  average  of 
seventy-five  tons  burthen"  from  Liverpool,  of  an 
average  of  forty  tons  from  Newport  and  Boston,  that 
went  forth  to  face  the  unavoidable  hurricanes  of  the 
tropical  seas  and  to  meet,  yardarm  to  yardarm,  the 
war- ships,  privateers,  and  pirates  that  were  ever  on  the 
lookout  for  such  rich  prizes  as  the  slavers.  The  fact 
is  the  seamen  who  manned  our  ships  in  the  War  of  the 


30  THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

Revolution,  and  by  their  pluck  and  skill  captured  the 
munitions  of  war  that  enabled  Washington  to  win  at 
last,  were  trained  on  the  decks  of  slavers.  And  John 
Paul  Jones,  one  of  the  "  true  sea-kings,  whose  claim 
to  the  title  lies  in  the  qualities  of  the  head  as  well  as 
of  the  heart,"  came  through  the  forecastle  of  the 
slaver  King  George  to  hoist  the  first  American  naval 
ensign  above  the  quarter-deck  of  the  first  American 
flag-ship. 


CHAPTER   III 

WHEN   VOYAGES   WENT  AWRY 

Tales  of  Trouble  When  Lying  on  the  Slave  Coast—"  We  are 
Ready  to  Devour  One  Another,  for  Our  Case  is  Desprit " — 
A  Second  Mate's  Unlucky  Trip  in  a  Long  Boat — Sickness 
in  the  Hold  as  Well  as  Among  the  Crew — Cocoanuts  and 
Oranges  Could  Not  Serve  in  Place  of  Water — Story  of  the 
Mutiny  on  the  Slaver  Perfect — Risks  the  Underwriters  As 
sumed — The  Proportion  of  Disastrous  Voyages. 

"ANAMABOE,  October  27th,  1736. 

"  SIR  :  After  my  Kespects  to  you,  these  may  Inform  how  it 
is  with  me  at  pres'nt.  I  bless  God  I  In  joy  my  health  very 
well  as  yett,  but  am  like  to  have  a  long  and  trublesum  voy 
age  of  it,  for  there  never  was  so  much  Kum  on  the  Coast  at 
one  time  before.  Nor  ye  like  of  ye  french  ships  was  never 
seen  before,  for  ye  whole  Coast  is  full  of  them,  for  my  part 
I  can  give  no  guess  when  I  shall  get  away,  for  I  purchest  but 
27  slaves  since  I  have  been  here,  for  slaves  is  very  scarce  :  we 
have  had  nineteen  sails  of  us  at  one  time  in  ye  Ehoad,  so  that 
those  ships  that  used  to  carry  pryme  slaves  off  is  now  forsed 
to  take  any  that  comes :  here  is  7  sails  of  us  Bum  men  that  we 
are  ready  to  devour  one  another,  for  our  Case  is  Desprit.  Sir, 
I  beg  that  you  will  exist  my  famely  in  what  they  shall  want, 
for  I  no  not  when  I  shall  get  home  to  them  myself.  I  have 
had  the  misfortin  to  Bury  my  chefe  mate  on  ye  21st  of  Sept. 
and  one  man  more,  and  Lost  the  negro  man  Prymus  and 
Adam  over  board  on  my  pasedge,  one  three  weeks  after 
another  :  that  makes  me  now  very  weke  handed  for  out  of 
what  it  left  thair  is  two  that  is  good  for  nothing.  Capt. 

31 


32  THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

Hamond  has  bin  heare  six  months  and  has  but  60  slaves  on 
bord.  My  hearty  servis  to  your  spouse  and  famely.  I  am 
y'rs  to  com'd  "  JOHN  GRIFFEN." 

Before  describing  fully  the  evils  inflicted  on  the 
slave  cargoes  ifc  seems  but  an  act  of  justice  to  give 
here  some  of  the  ills  endured  by  the  old-time  slavers. 
We  must  consider  the  condition  of  the  conscientious 
slaver  captain  when  there  were  "7  sails  of  us  Rum 
men"  in  one  port  anxious  to  buy  slaves — the  slaver 
captain  whose  "Case  is  Desprit" — with  such  degree 
of  sympathy  as  we  can  summon  for  his  benefit,  if  we 
are  to  see  the  trade  as  it  was.  Captain  Griffen  was 
one  of  the  Newport  slavers.  Very  likely  he  was  in 
the  trade  when  Captain  Lindsay  was  making  fame 
and  wealth ;  certainly  everyone  who  knows  the  sea, 
and  how  the  time  drags  while  waiting  for  a  cargo  in 
an  unhealthy,  unattractive  port,  far  from  home,  will 
sympathize  with  Captain  Hammond,  who  had  been  on 
the  slave-coast  for  six  months  and  had  less  than  half 
a  cargo  in  his  hold. 

Another  letter  from  the  captain,  George  Scott,  al 
ready  quoted  in  connection  with  Captain  Lindsay 
will  show  still  more  clearly  how  troubles  came  upon 
the  slavers.  The  letter  related  to  the  voyage  pre 
viously  mentioned,  and  it  runs  as  follows  : 

"  ANAMABOE,  April  ye  9th  1740 

"  Brother  Daniel,  this  I  hope  will  find  you  in  good  health 
as  I  am  at  present.  I  have  not  been  very  well  for  five  weeks 
past,  which  is  made  our  voyage  very  backward,  and  am  now 
very  well  recovered,  Blessed  be  God.  We  have  now  five 
people  sick  and  bonner  so  bad  he  will  not  recover.  I  am 
heartily  tired  of  ye  voyage,  everything  runs  so  cross  that  I 
undertake  to  make  a  voyage.  I  being  not  very  well,  kept  my 


WHEN    VOYAGES    WENT    AWRY  33 

cheif  mate  aboard  and  sent  ye  second  mate  in  ye  Long  boat 
to  Leward  a  trading.  He  had  not  been  gone  above  four  days 
before  he  hired  a  canoue,  sends  her  up  with  his  gold  taken  to 
me  for  goods,  without  any  orders  from  me.  i  sent  ye  canoue 
immediately  back  without  goods :  going  down  they  overset 
the  canoue,  the  blacks  came  off  from  ye  shore  and  took  them 
up,  put  them  in  irons :  the  blacks  where  ye  [long]  boat  lay 
detained  ye  mate  ashore,  in  which  time  a  man  slave  he  had 
bought,  got  out  ye  boat  with  two  ounces  of  gold  and  has  got 
clean  off.  I  was  obliged  to  go  down  with  ye  sloop  and  pay 
thirty-two  pound  in  ye  best  of  goods  before  they  would  let  ye 
mate  come  off.  Upon  the  hole  I've  lost  nigh  three  hundred 
pounds  with  that  trip,  in  money,  by  the  mate's  folly.  I  am 
sure  he  will  never  be  able  to  make  satisfaction. 

"  I  bought  some  slaves  and  Goods  from  a  Dutchman  for 
gold,  which  I  thought  to  sell  to  ye  french,  [but]  in  a  little 
time  after  [that]  my  slaves  was  all  taken  with  the  flucks,  so 
that  I  could  not  sell  them  ;  lost  three  with  it  and  have  three 
more  very  bad :  ye  rest  all  well  and  good  slaves.  We  have 
now  aboard  one  hundred  and  no  gold.  I  think  to  purchase 
about  twenty  &  go  off  ye  coast :  ye  time  of  year  don't  doe  to 
tarry  much  longer.  Everything  of  provisions  is  very  dear  and 
scarce  :  it  costs  for  water  Tenn  shilling  for  one  day.  I  think 
to  stay  in  this  place  but  fourteen  days  more.  We  shall  go  to 
Shama  and  water  our  vessel  and  sail  off  ye  coast  with  what  I 
can  purchase,  which  I  believe  will  be  120  slaves  cargo.  We 
shall  have  left  about  two  hundred  pound  sterg.  in  goods, 
which  wont  sell  here  to  any  profitt.  Every  man  slave  that  we 
pay  all  Goods  for  here,  costs  twelve  pound  sterg.  prime.  I 
hope  I  shall  be  in  Barbadoes,  ye  latter  end  of  June,  but  have 
not  concluded  whither  we  shall  go  to  Jamaica  or  Virginia ; 
our  slaves  is  mostly  large.  60  men  and  men  boys,  20  women, 
the  rest  boys  and  girls,  but  three  under  four  foot  high.  Pray 
excuse  all  blunders  and  bad  writing,  for  I  have  not  time  to 
coppy,  the  sloop  being  under  sail." 

One  of  the  earliest  of  tlie  voyages  that  went  awry, 
of  which  a  record  has  been  preserved,  was  that  of  the 
3 


34  THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

Dutch  West  India  Company's  ship  St.  Jolin,  the  log 
of  which  is  given  in  O'Callagan's  "Voyages  of  the 
Slavers."  The  troubles  here  were  due  to  the  parsi 
mony  of  the  owners — rather  the  directors  of  the  com 
pany — who  fitted  the  ship  out  with  rotten  food  and 
water  casks  that  leaked.  To  take  the  place  of  water 
they  took  on  5,000  cocoanuts  and  5,000  oranges,  but 
the  slaves  died  as  cattle  on  the  desert  do,  and  at  last, 
to  complete  the  misery  of  all,  the  ship  was  stranded  in 
a  gale,  and  then  looted  by  pirates. 

Another  cause  of  loss  to  the  slavers  was  in  the  mu 
tiny,  so-called,  of  the  slaves.  Although  the  negro  was 
never  for  a  moment  to  be  compared  with  the  North 
American  Indian  as  a  fighter,  he  did  sometimes,  even 
as  a  slave,  rise  against  his  oppressor.  While  the  slaver 
Perfect,  Captain  Potter,  was  at  Mana,  on  January  12, 
1759,  with  nearly  one  hundred  slaves  on  board,  the 
captain  sent  the  mate,  the  second  mate,  and  the  boat 
swain  away  for  slaves  that  had  been  paid  for.  This 
expedition  took  more  than  half  the  Perfect's  crew 
away  from  her  ;  and  while  they  were  gone,  the  slaves 
in  some  way  got  clear  of  their  manacles  and  swarmed 
up  on  deck.  They  killed  the  captain,  the  surgeon,  the 
carpenter,  the  cooper  and  a  boy,  when  six  other  mem 
bers  of  the  crew  got  into  a  boat  and  fled  ashore  to  the 
mate,  and  thence  to  the  slaver  Spencer,  Captain  Daniel 
Cooke. 

Next  morning  Captain  Cooke  took  his  ship  near  the 
Perfect  and  "fired  his  guns  into  her  for  about  an 
hour,"  but  the  Perfect's  mate  could  not  persuade  him 
to  board  her.  In  the  end  such  of  the  slaves  as  escaped 
the  guns  of  the  Spencer  managed  to  run  the  Perfect 
ashore,  where  they  plundered  and  burned  her. 


WHEN    VOYAGES    WENT    AWRY  35 

Of  the  troubles  that  came  upon  the  slavers  through 
the  wars  of  the  eighteenth  century  one  might  write  a 
long  and  stirring  chapter.  For  the  slavers  made  good 
fighting,  especially  when  it  was  viking  blood  in  the 
slavers  against  Latin  blood  in  naval  ships.  But 
of  that  nothing  can  be  told  here,  because  the  losses 
were  not  an  outgrowth  of  the  slave-trade  as  a  special 
branch  of  commerce.  But  something  may  be  told  of  the 
proportion  of  losing  to  paying  voyages,  even  though 
no  list  of  slavers  has  been  or  can  be  made.  In  the  old 
papers  already  mentioned  in  connection  with  Captain 
Lindsay,  we  find  the  charges  of  underwriters  set  forth, 
and  no  better  comment  on  the  risks  of  a  trade  can  be 
found  than  an  insurance  policy.  A  paragraph  from 
such  a  policy  reads  : 

"  And  touching  the  adventures  and  perils  which  we, 
the  assurers  are  content  to  bear,  and  do  take  upon  us 
in  this  voyage,  they  are  of  the  seas,  men  of  War,  Fire, 
Enemies,  Pyrates,  Rovers,  Thieves,  Jettisons,  Letters  of 
Mart,  and  Countermart,  Sarprizals,  Taking  at  sea,  Bar- 
atry  of  the  Master,  and  Marines,  and  all  the  Perils, 
Losses,  and  Misfortunes  that  have  or  shall  come  to  the 
hurt,  Detriment  or  Damage  of  the  said  Goods  and 
Merchandize,  or  of  the  said  vessel,  her  Tackel,  Apparel 
and  Furniture,  or  any  part  thereof." 

For  assuming  these  risks  the  underwriters  charged 
usually  £20  in  a  hundred,  but  Mr.  William  Johnson 
got  at  least  one  policy  of  a  hundred  for  £18  premium. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  SLAVER  AND  HER   OUTFIT 

There  were  Tiny  Ships  in  the  Trade — One  Vessel  had  a  Ca 
pacity  of  5,000  Gallons  of  Molasses  Only,  and  Even  Open 
Row -Boats  were  used  in  the  Nineteenth  Century — Dimen 
sions  of  a  Slaver's  Timbers — The  Famous  Venus,  a  Fore 
runner  of  the  Yankee  Clippers — Steamers  that  were  in  the 
Trade— The  Blubber  Kettles  of  Whalers  used  for  Boiling 
Rice  and  Yams — Rum,  Guns,  and  Coin  were  the  Favorite 
Article:-,  of  Traffic,  but  Silks,  Laces,  Parasols  and  Other 
Goods  for  the  Use  of  Women  of  Education  and  Delicate 
Tastes  were  Wanted— A  Naval  Officer's  Estimate  for  a 
Slaver's  Outfit. 

THE  Desire,  built  at  Marblehead,  in  1636,  was  the 
earliest  American  slaver  of  which  we  have  the  size,  and 
she,  as  already  noted,  was  "a  vessel  of  120  tons." 
Another  slaver  of  those  days  was  the  Oak  Tree, 
"Jansen  Eykenboom,  from  Hoorn,  master  under 
God."  In  a  charter-party  dated  uin  the  year  of 
the  birth  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  1659,  the  25th  of  January,"  under  which  the 
Oak  Tree  was  to  "sail,  with  the  first  favourable  wind 
and  weather  which  God  may  vouchsafe,  from  the 
harbor  [New  York]  direct  toward  the  coast  of  Africa," 
the  size  of  the  ship  is  given  :  "In  length  120  ft,  in 
width  25J  ft,  draft  11  ft,  above  the  waterline  5  to  6  ft, 
with  a  poop  deck." 

36 


THE    SLAVER    AND    HER    OUTFIT  37 

The  average  New  England  slaver  was  much  smaller. 
The  sloop  Welcome  that  cleared  from  Newport  for 
Barbadoes  had  a  capacity  of  5,000  gallons  of  mo 
lasses.  The  Fame,  a  noted  slaver  and  privateer  of 
Newport,  had  a  keel  seventy-nine  feet  long.  She  was 
just  about  as  long  on  the  water-line  as  the  Newport- 
built  defenders  of  the  America's  cup.  Her  beam  was 
twenty-six  and  a  half  feet,  which  was  about  the  width 
of  the  widest  defender. 

The  brigantine  Sanderson,  in  which  Captain  David 
Lindsay  made  fame,  carried  10,000  gallons  of  mo 
lasses. 

A  contract  made  by  Caleb  Clapp  and  Stephen 
Brown,  who  were  ship-builders  at  "  Warren,  in  the 
County  of  Bristole,  in  the  colony  of  Rhode  Island," 
in  1747,  gives  some  interesting  dimensions  of  a  brigan 
tine  they  had  on  the  stocks.  She  was  to  be  "  sixty 
feet  length  of  keel,  straight  rabbet,  and  length  of 
rake  forward  to  be  fourteen  feet,  three  foot  and  one- 
half  of  which  to  be  put  into  the  keel,  so  that  she  will 
then  be  sixty- three  feet  keel  and  eleven  feet  rake  for 
ward.  Twenty-three  feet  by  the  beam,  ten  feet  in  the 
hold,  and  three  feet  ten  inches  betwixt  decks,  and 
twenty  inches  waste.  Rake  abaft  to  be  according  to 
the  usual  proportions,  to  have  a  sufficient  false  stern. 
Keel  to  be  sided  thirteen  inches." 

A  vessel  of  500  tons  would  have,  in  these  days,  a 
keel  no  larger  than  that.  The  " betwixt  decks" 
space  is  worth  remembering,  because  the  slaves  were 
stowed  there. 

In  1808  the  trade  was  outlawed,  while  twelve  years 
later  it  was  declared  piracy,  and  a  few  war- ships 
were  sent  out  to  suppress  it.  Two  kinds  of  vessels 


38  THE   AMERICAN    SLAVE-TRADE 

were  used  thereafter.  One  kind  included  slender 
schooners  built  for  speed ;  the  other  kind  included 
large  ships,  a  few  only  of  which  were  swift.  The 
large  ones  were  fitted  out  by  men  who  meant  to  get 
rich  at  a  single  stroke.  The  small  ones  were  used  by 
men  who  found  the  trade  congenial.  These  last  would 
have  been  sneak- thieves  in  a  criminal  career  ashore  ; 
the  others,  highwaymen. 

We  have  definite  figures  regarding  some  of  the  ves 
sels  provided  for  the  sneaking  slavers,  because  some  of 
them  were  captured  and  accurate  measurements  were 
made.  In  1847  the  Felicidade,  of  sixty-seven  tons ;  the 
Maria,  of  thirty  tons,  and  the  Rio  Bango,  of  ten  tons, 
were  captured,  all  loaded  with  slaves  in  a  manner  to 
be  described  further  on ;  though  it  may  be  said  here 
that  the  Maria,  a  vessel,  say,  fifty  feet  long  and  six 
teen  wide,  had  two  hundred  and  thirty-seven  on  board 
when  taken.  Some  New  York  oyster  sloops  are  larger 
than  she  was. 

s  The  smaller  vessels  were  built,  in  some  cases,  in  such 
fashion  that  the  crew  could  take  down  the  masts  and 
use  oars.  This  gave  them  every  advantage  in  escaping 
from  the  cruisers  that  must  show  sails  above  the  hori 
zon  when  ten  miles  or  more  away. 

Even  the  ten-ton  schooner  was  not  the  limit.  Open 
row-boats  no  more  than  twenty -four  feet  long  by  seven 
wide  landed  as  many  as  thirty-five  children  in  Brazil 
out  of,  say,  fifty  with  which  the  voyage  began. 
"The  finest  ship  of  the  large  class  was  the  Venus,  a 
vessel  of  four  hundred  and  sixty  tons,  built  at  Balti 
more,  at  a  cost  of  $30,000.  So  swift  was  this  vessel 
that  when  chased  on  the  coast  of  Africa  her  captain 
actually  shortened  sail  in  order  to  play  with  the  man- 


THE  SLAVEE  AND  HEE  OUTFIT        39 

o'  -war.  There  was  nothing  under  sail  that  could  equal 
her  in  her  day.  She  landed  over  eight  hundred  slaves 
on  her  first  voyage,  with  a  net  profit  not  far  from  three 
hundred  dollars  per  head. 

A  few  steamers  were  known  in  the  trade.  The 
Promdencia  in  four  voyages  landed  4,500  slaves  in 
Brazil.  Another  one  called  the  Cacique  is  better 
known.  She  was  originally  the  Tigress,  belonging  to 
a  Captain  Sanford,  and  was  plying  between  New  York 
and  Stonington.  Sanford  sold  her  to  a  Brazilian  mer 
chant  named  Sexias  for  $11,500.  Sexias  spent  $13,500 
in  repairs  and  alterations.  "  In  these  transactions  Mr. 
Gardner,  an  American  resident  in  that  city  [New 
York],  appears  to  have  acted  as  agent,  and  he  was 
looked  upon  then  and  afterward,  by  the  Americans 
belonging  to  the  vessel,  as  the  consignee,  and  there  is 
reason  to  believe  he  engaged  in  fitting  out  other  steam 
vessels  for  the  same  purpose." 

The  Cacique  took  on  1,000  slaves  at  Cabenda  and 
could  have  made  a  safe  voyage  with  these,  but  Sexias 
waited  for  the  local  agents  to  collect  five  hundred 
more  and  was  captured  by  a  British  cruiser  in  conse 
quence. 

The  old  whaler  became  a  favorite  slaver  type,  bb- 
cause  her  try-pots  could  cook  yams  and  rice  as  well 
as  try  oil,  and  her  barrels  carry  either  oil  or  water. 

One  of  the  last  and  undoubtedly  the  most  noted  of 
the  whaler-slavers  was  the  bark  Augusta,  of  New  York. 
Gilbert  H.  Cooper  testified,  after  the  Augusta  was 
seized,  that  he  ' '  purchased  portions  of  the  same  vessel 
at  the  rate  of  $2,000  for  the  whole,"  and  that  he  sold 
her  to  Appleton  Oaksmith  for  $4,900,  including  $1,800 
worth  of  outfittings  for  the  voyage,  or  $3,100  for  the 


40  THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

ship  alone — "  winch  was  $1,000  more  than  the  [other] 
owners  had  authorized  me  to  sell  her  for." 

As  the  eighteenth  century  passed  away  the  improve 
ments  in  merchant  shipping,  so  far  as  improvements 
were  made,  were  due  chiefly  to  the  enterprise  of  slave- 
merchants,  and  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth 
century  there  was  nothing  afloat  of  their  size  that 
could  overhaul  the  slavers  that  were  turned  into  pri 
vateers  during  the  war  of  1812. 

In  the  nineteenth  century  the  slave-trade  had  rela 
tively  much  less  influence  on  shipping,  but  it  is  certain 
that  the  Venus  from  Baltimore  was  the  forerunner  of 
the  splendid  Yankee  clippers  whose  voyages  previous 
to  the  Civil  War  astonished  the  maritime  world.  It  is 
certain,  too,  that  the  building  of  small,  swift  schoon 
ers  enriched  many  a  Yankee  ship-yard  owner  in  the 
years  before  our  Civil  War.  If  the  sole  end  of 
government  were  the  promotion  of  business  inter 
ests,  then  it  might  be  said  that  those  officials  who 
winked  at  the  doings  of  slavers  served  their  country 
well. 

What  goods  were  used  in  the  slave-trade  has  been 
recorded  in  many  official  documents.  Here  is  the  bill 
of  lading  of  the  Sierra  Leone,  a  Yankee  slaver  in  the 
middle  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

"Shipped  by  the  Grace  of  GOD  in  good  Order  and  well 
conditioned,  by  William  Johnson  &  Co.,  owners  of  the  said 
Schooner,  called  the  Sierra  Leone,  whereof  is  master  under 
God  for  this  present  voyage,  David  Lindsay,  &  now  riding 
at  Anchor  in  Harbour  of  Newport,  &  by  God's  grace  bound 
for  the  Coast  of  Africa:  To  say/'  etc.  The  usual  list  of 
rum,  food,  and  shackles  follows,  with  "sixty  musketts,  six 
half  barrels  Powder  "  and  so  on,  the  bill  ending  at  last  with 


THE    SLAVER    AND    HER    OUTFIT  41 

these  words:  "And  so  God  send  the  good  Schooner  to  her 
desired  Port  in  Safety.    Amen." 

There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  the  invocations 
to  the  Deity  were  a  mere  vain  following  of  custom. 
There  is  the  record  of  "one  good  old  elder,  whose 
ventures  on  the  coast  had  uniformly  turned  out 
well."  He  "  always  returned  thanks  on  the  Sunday 
following  the  arrival  of  a  slaver  in  the  harbor  of  New 
port,  that  an  overruling  Providence  has  been  pleased 
to  bring  to  this  land  of  freedom  another  cargo  of  be 
nighted  heathen,  to  enjoy  the  blessing  of  a  Gospel  dis 
pensation."  As  the  author  of  "Examen  de  PEsclav- 
age  en  General,"  a  French  pro-slavery  work,  says: 
4 'Devotion  was  at  that  time  the  great  occupation  in 
Europe  ;  and  it  was  believed  that  Christians  and  sugar 
might  easily  be  made  at  the  same  time." 

In  1801,  when  the  prices  on  the  slave-coast  were  at 
the  highest,  the  following  goods  were  given  for  one 
prime  slave.  The  list  is  quoted  from  Gower  Williams  : 

"  One  piece  of  chintz,  18  yards  long  ;  one  piece  of  baft,  18 
yards  long  ;  one  piece  of  chelloe,  18  yards  long  ;  one  piece  of 
bandanoe ;  seven  handkerchiefs ;  one  piece  of  niccannee,  14 
yards  long ;  one  piece  of  cushtae,  14  yards  long  ;  three  pieces 
of  romalls ;  forty-five  handkerchiefs  ;  one  large  brass  pan ; 
two  muskets  ;  twenty-five  kegs  powder  ;  100  flints  ;  two  bags 
of  shots  ;  twenty  knives ;  four  iron  pots ;  four  hats ;  four 
caps  ;  four  cutlasses ;  six  bunches  beads ;  fourteen  gallons 
brandy."  The  total  cost  of  the  articles  was  £25. 

The  captain  of  another  slave-ship,  writing  in  1757, 
gives  a  list  of  his  cargo  as  follows  : 

"Have  on  bord  140  hhds.  Rum  for  owners,  100  Ibs. 
Provitions,  12  Thousand  Ibs.  bread,  six  4-pounders,  4 


42  THE   AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

swevles  &  4  cowhorns  [a  kind  of  gun],  small  arms, 
&c." 

In  the  earliest  days  rum  was  the  best  article  for  the 
purchase  of  slaves.  At  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  cen 
tury,  when  slaves  were  obtained  chiefly  by  murderous 
raids,  arms  were  of  first  consequence.  And  then  when 
the  slavers  established  great  depots  and  barracoons  on 
the  slave-coast  a  time  came  when  coin  was  wanted 
more  than  any  other  commodity. 

When  Commodore  M.  C.  Perry  was  in  command  of 
the  African  squadron  he  sent  the  following  letter  to 
Washington : 

UNITED  STATES  FRIGATE  MACEDONIAN, 

At  Sea,  January  28,  1844. 

Goods  suitable  for  the  African  trade,  to  comprise  a  cargo 
for  a  vessel  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  tons. 

40  hogsheads  tobacco,  long  leaf  and  small  head,  Virginia. 
100  barrels  powder,  in  10  and  20  pound  kegs.  American 
cotton  goods,  consisting  of  furniture  and  apron  checks, 
bleached  and  unbleached  muslins,  blue  handkerchiefs,  calicoes, 
blue  drill,  blue  bafts  or  salempores,  English  dry  goods,  viz.. 
blue  and  white  bafts  satin  stripes,  romanes,  tomcoffees.  100 
barrels  beef,  pork  and  mackerel.  100  barrels  flour,  25  barrels 
kiln-dried  cornmeal.  2,000  pounds  refined  sugar,  1,000 
pounds  brown  sugar,  20  kegs  butter,  20  kegs  lard,  20  boxes 
sperm  candles,  50  boxes  soap.  2,000  pounds  hams,  1,000 
pounds  sides  and  shoulders,  400  pounds  beef  tongues.  300 
pounds  cheese,  20  boxes  raisins,  50  barrels  pilot  and  navy 
bread.  Half  dozen  quarter  casks  of  wine,  madeira,  port  and 
sherry.  Tea  in  two-pound  caddies,  young  hyson  and  gun 
powder,  500  pounds  coffee.  Crockery,  consisting  of  C.  C. 
wash  basins,  painted  quart  and  pint  mugs  and  jugs,  say  100 
dozen  of  each.  Tin  pans,  assorted  sizes,  say  50  dozen.  Tin 
buckets  with  bales,  four  gallon  size,  100  dozen.  Wooden 
buckets,  painted,  say  25  dozen.  Gentlemen's  boots  and  shoes, 
100  pairs,  assorted,  principally  large  sizes.  Ladies'  shoes, 


THE    SLAVER    AND    HER    OUTFIT  43 

kid  and  prunelle,  100  pairs,  assorted.  Gentlemen's  half  hose, 
ladies'  cotton  stockings  of  good  quality,  50  dozen  each.  100 
dozen  palm-leaf  hats,  assorted.  Blank  books,  paper,  ink  and 
quills,  in  equal  proportion,  say  $50  worth.  400  pounds 
white  lead,  30  gallons  paint  oil,  30  gallons  lamp  oil.  Brass 
kettles  and  pans,  say  1,000  pounds,  two-eighth  kettles. 
About  §500  laid  out  in  articles  of  good  quality  for  ladies  ; 
muslin,  lace,  insertion,  silk  gloss,  silk  stockings,  small 
quantity  of  black  silk,  needles,  pins,  thread  in  spools  and 
hanks,  ribbons  for  bonnets,  a  few  bonnets  &c.  10  boxes  good 
Spanish  cigars  in  quarter  boxes.  If  there  be  plenty  of  room, 
put  in  500  feet  of  boards.  20  kegs  of  cut  nails,  assorted  sizes, 
say  4,  6,  7,  and  8  penny.  2  dozen  silk  and  5  dozen  cotton 
umbrellas.  A  small  quantity  of  ale,  porter,  and  cider,  the  best 
quality,  say  50  dozen  each  of  ale  and  porter,  and  25  of  cider. 

Cutlasses  and  muskets  are  in  demand  for  trade,  but  can  be 
furnished  much  cheaper  from  England  than  from  the  United 
States.  Those  brought  out  are  of  an  inferior  quality. 

This  list  has  been  received  from   an  authentic  source,  and 
is  now  forwarded  to  the  Navy  Department,  by 
M.  C.  PERRY, 

Commanding  African  Squadron. 

NOTE. — Whiskey,  or  rum,  is  a  profitable  article  of  traffic,  but 
is  purposely  omitted  in  this  list. 


CHAPTER  V 
ON   THE  SLAVE-COAST 

Physical  Features  of  Land  and  Sea — Peculiarities  of  the  Abo 
rigines  and  some  Characteristics  that  were  not  Peculiar  to 
Them— Gathering  Slaves  for  the  Market— A  Trade  that 
Degenerated  from  a  System  of  Fair  Barter  into  the  Most 
Atrocious  Forms  of  Piracy  Conceivable — Utter  Degrada 
tion  of  White  Traders — The  Slaughter  at  Calabar — Prices 
Paid  for  Slaves — The  Barracoons  of  Pedro  Blanco  and  Da 
Souza — When  Negroes  Voluntarily  Sold  Themselves. 

THE  chief  source  of  supply  for  the  devouring  slave- 
market  of  the  West  throughout  the  whole  history  of 
the  trade,  and  practically  the  only  source  during  the 
years  when  the  trade  was  legal,  was  found  along  the 
Atlantic  coast  of  Africa,  between  Cape  Verde,  at 
the  north,  and  Benguela,  or  Cape  St.  Martha,  at  the 
south.  The  sea  here  makes  a  great  scoop  into  the  land, 
as  if  the  Brazilian  part  of  the  South  American  con 
tinent  had  been  broken  out  of  the  hollow  in  the  Afri 
can  coast.  Two  great  rivers  and  a  host  of  smaller 
streams  come  down  to  the  sea  within  its  limits,  and 
its  contour,  as  a  whole,  is  that  of  a  mighty  gulf,  but 
there  is  neither  bay  nor  inlet  throughout  its  whole 
extent  that  forms  a  good  harbor  for  shipping.  And 
the  off-shore  islands,  too,  are  few  in  number  and  small 
in  extent.  The  land  at  the  beach  is  almost  every 
where  low,  even  though  hills  and  mountains  may  be 

44 


ON   THE   SLAVE-COAST  45 

seen,  flooded  with  a  dreamy  haze,  in  the  distance. 
The  rivers  wind  about  through  uncounted  channels  in 
low  delta  lands  covered  with  masses  of  mangrove  and 
palm  trees,  and  haunted  by  poisonous  and  vicious 
reptiles.  The  yellowish  sand  of  the  sea  and  the  black 
washings  of  the  uplands  mingle  to  form  low,  tawny 
beaches  and  dunes  where  the  river  currents  are  beaten 
back  by  the  ever-present  and  ever-treacherous  surf. 
Goree  and  Gambia,  Sierra  Leone  and  Liberia,  the  Bight 
of  Benin  and  the  Bight  of  Biafra,  Bonny  and  Calabar, 
Anamaboe  and  Ambriz,  the  Congo  and  St.  Paul  de 
Loango,  are  all  familiar  names  to  the  student  of  slave- 
coast  literature. 

Here  as  elsewhere  in  the  primitive  life  of  man  the 
strong  dominated  the  weak — there  were  tribes  that 
were  superior,  mentally  and  physically,  to  their  neigh 
bors,  and  in  every  tribe  there  were  men  who  arose  above 
the  masses,  while  among  these  stalwarts  there  was  a 
chief  who  was  in  every  case  a  real  hero  to  his  people. 
The  sons  of  the  chiefs  or  kings  did,  indeed,  inherit  the 
commanding  positions  of  their  fathers,  but  only  when 
it  was  shown  in  them  that  the  blood  had  not  degen 
erated.  In  some  tribes  there  was  no  inheritance  of 
the  chiefs  office. 

It  was  a  superstitious  as  well  as  a  savage  people, 
believing  in  the  existence  of  invisible  supernatural 
beings  of  various  kinds,  but  because  of  the  destruc 
tive  influence  of  the  unexplainable  phenomena  of 
nature  round  about,  they  regarded  nearly  all  of  these 
spirits  as  having  malevolent  minds.  From  the  light 
ning's  stroke  to  the  insidious  spread  of  a  tumor,  no  ill 
of  life  occurred  that  was  not  the  work  of  a  malignant 
spirit. 


46  THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

In  a  way  not  hard  to  understand,  these  savages  con 
nected  the  spirits  with  the  evil  creatures  of  the  earth 
—with  the  poisonous  serpents,  the  fierce  robber  birds, 
the  ravenous  beasts,  and  with  those  human  individuals 
in  whom  cunning  and  stealth  took  the  place  of  courage 
and  physical  prowess.  Even  the  rocks,  when  of  un 
usual  form,  and  especially  when  of  terrifying  aspect, 
were  regarded  as  the  abiding  places  of  evil  spirits,  and 
not  infrequently  as  their  visible  bodies. 

With  all  they  had  a  crude  knowledge  of  what,  in 
works  on  political  economy,  is  treated  under  the  head 
of  "exchanges."  The  savage,  of  course,  had  made 
but  slight  progress  in  the  practical  arts,  while  the 
white  men  understood  the  results  of  accumulation 
as  well  as  of  exchange. 

In  one  other  matter  the  savage  and  the  civilized 
man  found  themselves  on  common  ground,  though 
that  is  not  to  say  exactly  on  a  level.  They  both 
loved  rum.  The  white  man  mixed  his  rum  with 
juice  of  limes  and  water  and  sugar.  The  savage 
always  took  (and  takes)  his  "  straight."  The  white 
man  of  those  days,  too,  preferred  madeira  wine 
when  he  could  afford  it,  which  he  could  do  after 
one  voyage  to  Africa.  Moreover  the  white  man 
drank  it  for  his  health,  or  for  some  other  reason  of 
that  kind,  while  the  savage  took  it  because  he  liked 
it.  The  relative  levels  of  the  two  races  are  herein 
manifest. 

Because  the  white  men  were  superior  in  a  variety  of 
ways  the  black  men  received  them  with  joy,  and 
opened  traffic  at  once. 

It  was  a  grewsome  traffic  that  followed — the  most 
grewsome  in  the  history  of  the  world — for  the  white 


ON   THE  SLAVE-COAST  47 

men  came  seeking  slaves  and  the  blacks  had  them  to 
sell. 

It  is  a  curious  subject  of  inquiry,  when  we  come  to 
consider  how  the  African  chiefs  happened  to  have  slaves 
for  sale.  That  slaves  were  few  in  number  during  the 
earlier  years  of  the  trade  is  certain.  That  is  to  say, 
the  great  men  of  every  tribe  held  a  few  of  their  neigh 
bors  as  personal  property.  They  were  detained  in 
various  ways,  but  chiefly  through  taking  prisoners  in 
the  fights  with  neighboring  tribes,  for  strange  as  it 
may  seem  now,  the  presence  of  slaves  in  a  tribe  indi 
cated  some  degree  of  mercy  in  the  minds  of  the  slave 
owners.  Instead  of  killing  everybody,  old  and  young, 
when  attacking  an  enemy,  these  slave-owners  saved 
some  alive. 

One  other  way  was  through  the  tribal  laws  regard 
ing  debts.  The  civilized  people  threw  the  insolvent 
debtor  into  prison  and  held  him  there,  very  fre 
quently,  until  he  died — sometimes  while  he  starved 
to  death.  The  black  savages  made  the  debtor  work 
out  the  debt.  It  was  also  noted  by  the  whites  that 
when  a  negro  husband  found  one  of  his  wives  unfaith 
ful  he  made  a  slave  of  her  lover. 

More  remarkable  still  was  another  source  of  slave- 
owning  among  the  Africans.  So  jealous  were  they 
of  their  right  to  worship  their  gods  when,  where, 
and  how  they  pleased,  that  for  a  man  to  desecrate 
or  remove  a  neighbor's  fetish,  or  even  to  touch 
it,  was  an  offence  for  which  the  penalty  was  often 
slavery. 

War,  crime,  and  superstition  supplied  the  great 
men  of  the  tribes  with  servants,  and  these  they  would 
sell  on  occasion.  That  they  might  also  sell  wives  and 


48  THE  AMERICAN  SLAVE-TRADE 

children  scarcely  need  be  said,  though  sons  were  rarely 
sold  save  in  time  of  famine,  even  in  the  mild  slave- 
holding  days  before  the  white  slaver  came — days  when 
slaves  were,  on  the  whole,  treated  as  members  of  the 
slave-holder' s  family.  In  connection  with  these  facts 
we  must  remember  that  the  Africans,  having  food  and 
raiment,  were  therewith  content.  They  did  not  try  to 
accumulate  fortunes,  and  so  had  no  need  for  many 
workmen.  Slaves  were  few  in  number  on  this  coast 
before  the  white  man  came. 

The  story  of  the  first  American  voyage  to  Africa  of 
which  we  have  a  definite  record  tells  us  somewhat  of 
methods  employed  in  obtaining  slave  cargoes.  A 
Boston  ship,  called  the  Rairibowe,  commanded  by 
one  Captain  Smith,  went  away  to  Madeira  with  salt- 
fish  and  staves.  Sailing  thence  with  the  proceeds  of 
her  sale,  she  " touched  on  the  coast  of  Guinea"  for 
slaves.  She  found  some  London  slave- vesselg  already 
here,  with  their  captains  very  much  disgruntled  be 
cause  trade  was  dull.  There  were  very  few  slaves  for 
sale,  that  is,  and  to  liven  matters  a  little,  the  Yankees 
and  the  Londoners  united,  and  * c  on  pretence  of  some 
quarrel  with  the  natives  landed  a  '  murderer ' — the  ex 
pressive  name  of  a  small  cannon — attacked  a  negro 
village  on  Sunday,  killed  many  of  the  inhabitants, 
and  made  a  few  prisoners,  two  of  whom  fell  to  the 
share  of  the  Boston  ship." 

That  was  in  1645 — just  twenty-six  years  after  the 
Dutchman  landed  the  slaves  in  Virginia  as  recorded 
by  John  Rolfe,  the  first  American  squaw-man.  False 
pretence,  outrage,  and  the  slaughter  of  innocents 
characterized  the  first-recorded  gathering  of  slaves  in 
which  an  American  had  part.  They  "killed  many  of 


AFTER    A    RAID. 

See  page  56. 


ON    THE   SLAVE-COAST  49 

the  inhabitants,"  and  got  two  slaves  for  their  share  of 
the  plunder. 

That  Captain  Smith's  act  was  not  according  to  the 
ordinary  usages  of  the  trade  may  be  inferred  from 
what  happened  when  he  returned  to  Boston.  A 
quarrel  with  the  ship's  owners  over  the  proceeds  of 
the  voyage  resulted  in  a  lawsuit.  The  story  of  the 
voyage  was  told  in  court,  and  although  it  was  not  a 
criminal  trial,  one  of  the  magistrates  "  charged  the 
master  with  a  threefold  offence — murder,  man-steal 
ing,  and  Sabbath-breaking."  The  captain  escaped 
punishment  on  these  charges,  on  the  ground  that  the 
court  had  no  jurisdiction  over  crimes  committed  in 
Africa,  a  decision  that  was  typical  of  what  was  to 
come.  But  the  two  slaves  were  returned  home. 

On  the  other  hand,  when  we  consider  the  usual 
course  of  trade,  we  may  say  that,  viewed  fairly  and 
by  the  light  of  the  age,  the  gathering  of  slaves  on  the 
coast  of  Africa,  previous  to  1750,  was  conducted  with 
as  great  a  regard  for  honesty  as  was  any  other  trade 
with  uncivilized  people. 

The  voyage  to  the  coast  in  the  Newport  slaver 
days  lasted  anywhere  from  six  to  ten  weeks,  accord 
ing  to  the  ship  and  the  luck  in  winds.  On  reaching 
Bonny,  or  Anamaboe,  or  Old  Calabar,  then  favorite 
ports,  the  captain  made  ready  for  a  grand  entertain 
ment  in  honor  of  the  native  chiefs  and  headmen.  To 
put  it  bluntly,  the  chiefs  were  invited  on  board  to  get 
drunk,  and  they  accepted  the  invitation  with  an  eager 
thirst. 

In  addition  to  this  free  debauch  the  chiefs  received 
sundry  presents.  According  to  Alexander  Falcon- 
bridge,  a  surgeon  in  the  trade  in  the  latter  half  of  the 
4 


50  THE   AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

eighteenth  century,  the  presents  ''generally  consist  of 
pieces  of  cloth,  cotton,  chintz,  silk  handkerchiefs,  and 
other  India  goods,  and  sometimes  brandy,  wine,  or 
beer." 

Having  propitiated  the  chiefs,  the  captain  was  free 
to  begin  trade.  Some  inkling  of  how  this  was  con 
ducted  is  told  in  the  letter  of  Captain  George  Scott 
in  the  chapter  "When  Voyages  Went  Awry." 

It  was  disheartening  and  even  exasperating  to  the 
slavers,  and  the  more  enterprising  made  ways  of  liven 
ing  the  trade.  They  looked  for  a  chief  who  held  a 
grudge  against  a  native  tribe,  and  incited  and  aided 
him  to  take  revenge.  They  suggested  to  chiefs  that 
certain  stout,  well-built  citizens  of  the  tribe  were  am 
bitious  of  becoming  rulers  and  that  an  effectual  stop 
to  such  ambition  was  to  sell  the  offenders.  They  made 
friends  with  the  fetish  or  medicine  men — always  the 
adroit  and  underhand  rascals  of  the  tribe — in  order  to 
have  charges  of  witchcraft  preferred  against  likely 
young  men  and  women.  They  persuaded  the  medicine 
men  to  have  youths  and  children  entrapped  without 
any  charge  of  any  kind.  They  told  men  having  many 
wives  that  this  or  that  young  man  was  the  lover  of 
one  or  another  wife.  So  the  great  man  was  led  to 
lie  in  wait  and  capture  the  lover  and  sell  him.  It  was 
a  short  step  from  this  to  another  practice  whereby  at 
tractive  wives  were  sent  to  entrap  unwary  amorous 
swains.  Incredible  as  it  must  seem,  the  civilized  cap 
tains  from  Christian  lands  introduced  what  is  known 
to  professional  thieves  as  the  badger  game,  and  they 
made  money  out  of  it,  and  the  ship  merchants  and 
stockholders  in  the  ships  knew  that  it  was  done  and 
willingly  shared  the  profits. 


ON   THE    SLAVE-COAST  51 

But  a  worse  state  of  affairs  was  to  come.  That 
there  was  a  steady  growth  in  the  number  of  ships  in 
the  trade  has  already  been  noted.  The  cause  of  the 
rapid  increase  in  the  number  and  capacity  of  the 
slavers  during  the  middle  years  of  the  eighteenth  cen 
tury  is  not  far  to  seek.  The  planters  of  the  West 
Indies  had  found  it  more  profitable  to  work  slaves  to 
death,  while  yet  in  the  prime  of  life,  than  to  support 
them  in  an  idle  old  age.  The  loss  of  hands  could  be 
readily  replaced  by  importations  from  Africa,  and 
there  was  nothing  in  the  civilization  of  that  age  to 
make  the  planters  consider  any  other  question  in  the 
matter  than  that  of  making  profits. 

The  prices  of  slaves  rose  steadily  under  this  increas 
ing  demand.  Captain  Lindsay,  in  the  voyage  that 
was  "anoof  to  make  a  man  creasey,"  sold  his  prime 
slaves  for  £35  each.  Twenty-five  years  later  the  price 
received  averaged  £70,  and  the  Liverpool  ship  Enter 
prise,  belonging  to  T.  Ley  land  &  Co.,  in  a  voyage 
made  about  the  first  of  the  present  century,  cleared 
£24,430  8s.  \\d.  on  a  cargo  of  three  hundred  and 
ninety-two  slaves,  or  more  than  £62  per  head,  old  and 
young  all  counted  in. 

The  result  was  an  activity,  well  called  "  feverish," 
in  the  market  on  the  African  coast.  The  price  of  a 
slave  there,  according  to  a  Newport  record  dated  1762, 
was  one  hundred  and  ten  gallons  of  rum.  An  old 
commercial  history  of  Liverpool  records  that  in  1786 
the  average  cost  of  delivering  a  slave  in  the  West  In 
dies  was  £27  5s.  10^.,  of  which  perhaps  £22  was  the 
price  paid  for  the  slave.  With  the  first  jumps  in  the 
price  came  a  change  in  the  methods  of  obtaining  car 
goes.  The  dribbling  supply  that  had  worried  Captain 


52  THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

Lindsay,  who  was  satisfied  with,  a  cargo  of  but  fifty- 
six,  was  wholly  inadequate  to  the  growing  de 
mand. 

The  first  change  in  the  trade  was  relatively  a  mild 
one.  Slavers  had  never  been  very  scrupulous  about 
the  title  which  a  seller  claimed  when  a  slave  was  of 
fered,  but  there  are  cases  on  record  where  slavers  re 
fused  to  buy  when  it  was  learned  that  men  offered  as 
slaves  were  really  free  and  had  been  kidnapped. 
When  the  demand  became  eager,  after  1750,  the  cap 
tains  let  it  be  known  that  every  soul  offered,  if  phys 
ically  sound,  would  be  taken  and  no  questions  asked. 
Slaves,  too,  had  been  purchased  almost  exclusively 
of  chiefs  and  headmen,  and  it  had  been  a  daylight 
trade.  Now  anybody  might  bring  a  slave  at  any 
time  of  the  night  and  get  a  good  price  for  him. 

Straightway  the  people  of  the  coast  who,  in  the  or 
dinary  course  of  their  lives  would  never  have  owned 
a  slave,  began  bringing  slaves  to  the  ships.  Two  or 
three  would  paddle  off  in  a  canoe  at  night,  bringing 
one  that  was  bound  and  gagged,  and  the  purchase  of 
those  who  were  manifestly  kidnapped  became  the 
regular  custom  of  the  trade.  Alexander  Falconbridge, 
the  slaver  surgeon  already  quoted,  said  that  in  his 
time  (during  the  latter  part  of  the  century)  the  ma 
jority  of  the  slaves  with  whom  he  talked  had  been 
kidnapped.  He  gave  many  instances  of  which  he  had 
personal  knowledge,  by  way  of  illustration.  A  wo 
man  was  invited  by  a  neighbor  to  come  in  for  a  visit 
one  evening.  As  soon  as  she  entered  the  hut  two  men 
in  waiting  bound  her  and  carried  her  on  board  ship. 
A  father  and  his  son,  while  planting  yams,  were 
seized  by  men  who  came  from  the  brush.  A  man 


ON   THE   SLAVE-COAST  53 

from  the  interior  having  brought  some  product  to  the 
beach  for  sale  was  asked  to  visit  the  ship  lying  off 
shore  and  get  a  free  drink  of  rum.  He  went,  but 
when  there  found  that  his  guide  had  sold  him,  and 
stay  he  must. 

James  Town,  a  ship  carpenter,  in  the  Parliamentary 
inquiry,  testified  that  he  saw  a  dealer  sell  a  slave  on 
board  a  ship,  in  the  Gallmas,  but  when  the  dealer 
paddled  to  the  beach  with  his  goods,  four  men  came 
from  the  brush,  seized  him,  robbed  him  of  his  goods 
and  then  carried  him,  in  his  own  canoe,  to  the  slave- 
ship,  where  they  sold  him  to  the  captain,  who  had 
seen  the  whole  doings. 

While  the  British  slaver  Briton  was  lying  in  the 
Benin  River  a  native  chief  known  as  Captain  Lemma 
came  on  board  to  get  the  usual  presents.  A  few  min 
utes  later  a  canoe  with  three  negroes  was  seen  crossing 
the  river,  and  the  chief  sent  his  followers  to  bring  it  to 
the  ship.  The  three  proved  to  be  members  of  another 
tribe  than  the  chief  s,  and  they  were  at  once  offered  for 
sale.  Two  were  purchased,  but  the  third,  an  elderly 
man,  was  refused  as  unsalable.  At  that  the  old  man 
was  taken  over  the  rail  and  there  his  head  was 
cut  off. 

Off  Piccaninni  Sestus,  on  the  windward  coast,  in 
1769,  Mr.  William  Dove  saw  a  noted  native  slaver 
named  Ben  Johnson  bring  off  a  girl  he  had  stolen. 
Just  as  Johnson  was  leaving  the  ship  on  one  side  two 
very  excited  men  came  to  the  other  to  inquire  about 
the  girl.  On  learning  her  fate  they  went  in  chase  of 
Johnson,  captured  him,  and,  bringing  him  to  the  ship, 
offered  him  for  sale. 

4 'You  won't  buy  me,  whom  you  know  to  be  a  great 


54  THE   AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

trading  man,  will  you,  captain  ? ' '  said  Johnson,  in 
remonstrance. 

"If  they  will  sell  you  I  will  buy  you,  be  you  what 
you  may,"  replied  the  captain,  and  the  kidnapping  Ben 
Johnson  became  a  slave  himself.  This  story  is  espe 
cially  interesting  because  of  the  picture  it  gives  of  the 
workings  of  the  captain' s  mind.  He  would  not  kidnap 
a  negro  himself,  but  he  would  buy  of  anyone  under 
any  circumstances. 

A  man  named  Marsh,  who  was  in  charge  of  a  shore 
station  established  for  buying  slaves  at  Cape  Coast 
Castle,  in  those  days,  is  on  record  as  saying:  uldo 
not  mind  how  they  get  them,  for  I  buy  them  fairly." 
It  is  a  queer  exhibition  of  conscientious  scruples, 
though  one,  perhaps,  not  now  wholly  unknown. 

But  the  slavers  rapidly  outgrew  such  squeamishness. 
They  outgrew  it  simply  because  the  increased  numbers 
obtained  by  such  methods  were  still  inadequate  for 
the  demand.  Moreover  with  the  increase  in  the  num 
ber  in  an  average  cargo  came  a  special  need  for  haste 
in  procuring  them.  Captain  Lindsay  might  keep  forty 
negroes  "in  helth  and  fatt"  under  the  deck  of  the 
Sanderson  while  gathering  fifteen  or  twenty  more  by 
the  old  slow  process,  but  when  Captain  Billy  Boates, 
of  Liverpool,  a  noted  slaver,  who  was  "  born  a  beggar 
to  die  a  lord,"  had  two  hundred  and  fifty  on  board 
the  ship  Knight,  in  which  he  won  fame,  he  could  not 
wait  long  for  the  remaining  hundred  because  those 
already  on  board  would  die. 

The  trade  in  its  origin  had  been  an  exchange  of  a 
fair  measure  of  goods  for  individuals  legally  held 
as  slaves.  It  arrived  at  a  stage  in  which  a  majority 
of  every  cargo  purchased  consisted  of  freemen  kid- 


ON   THE   SLAVE-COAST  55 

napped  as  individuals.  The  next  step  down  in 
volved  a  resort  to  piracy — to  deliberate  attacks  on 
natives  who  refused  to  trade.  It  will  be  remembered 
that  the  Massachusetts  slaver  had  been  a  pirate  in  this 
fashion  as  early  as  1645.  Such  acts  were  too  common 
throughout  the  traffic,  but  what  is  to  be  emphasized 
here  is  that  piratical  acts  naturally  increased  in  num 
ber  as  the  demand  for  slaves  increased. 

Following  bloody  quarrels  with  the  coast  tribes 
came  the  practice  of  inciting  the  coast  tribes  to  make 
piratical  raids  on  the  interior. 

It  is  likely  that  the  practice  of  inciting  these  raids 
began  as  early  as  1757 — perhaps  earlier,  in  a  desultory 
way.  At  any  rate,  in  a  letter  already  quoted  "six 
four-pounders,  four  swevles,  and  four  cow-horns" 
were  among  the  goods  carried  out  for  trade.  But  it  is 
certain  that  raiding  was  not  then  the  usual  course  of 
trade. 

Mr.  John  Bowman,  who  was  employed  at  the  slave 
coast  just  previous  to  1776,  testified  before  the  Com 
mittee  of  Parliament  that  he  had  had  charge  of  an 
agency  established  on  the  Scassus  River  for  supplying 
the  warlike  natives  with  arms  for  raids,  and  that  he 
accompanied  the  raiders  on  one  expedition.  Coming 
to  the  agency  the  chief  obtained  a  supply  of  guns  and 
ammunition.  Then  the  trumpets  were  sounded,  a  band 
of  men  was  collected,  the  arms  were  distributed,  and 
the  start  was  made  immediately.  Late  in  the  after 
noon  the  band  camped  near  a  branch  of  the  Scassus 
and  waited  until  midnight.  Then,  leaving  Bowman, 
whose  heart  had  failed  him,  they  crept  away  through 
the  forest.  A  half  hour  later  shouts  and  screams  were 
heard  and  the  forest  was  lighted  up  by  the  flames  of 


56  THE   AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

burning  huts.  Later  still  the  band  returned,  bringing 
thirty  men,  women,  and  children.  A  small  village 
had  been  attacked  when  all  its  people  were  asleep. 
Some  were  killed  and  some  escaped  to  the  brush, 
the  thirty  captives  being  taken  alive  and  unhurt. 
These  were  bound  securely,  and  when  day  came  they 
were  carried  down  to  the  agency. 

This  is  one  of  the  mildest  stories  of  a  raid  known  to 
the  history  of  the  trade. 

Captain  Canot,  in  describing  the  work  of  a  raiding 
party,  says : 

uln  my  wanderings  in  Africa  I  have  often  seen  the 
tiger  pounce  upon  its  prey,  and  with  instinctive  thirst 
satiate  its  appetite  for  blood  and  abandon  the  drained 
corpse  ;  but  these  African  negresses  [who  were  of  the 
raiding  party]  were  neither  as  decent  nor  as  merciful 
as  the  beast  of  the  wilderness.  Their  malignant 
pleasure  seemed  to  consist  in  the  invention  of  tortures 
that  would  agonize  but  not  slay.  A  slow,  lingering, 
tormenting  mutilation  was  practised  on  the  living 
.  .  .  and  in  every  instance  the  brutality  of  the 
women  exceeded  that  of  the  men.  I  cannot  picture 
their  hellish  joy  .  .  .  while  the  queen  of  the  har 
pies  crept  amid  the  butchery  gathering  the  brains 
from  each  severed  skull  as  a  bonne  bouclie  for  the  ap 
proaching  feast." 

As  for  the  defeated  negroes  who  were  not  killed, 
they  were  carried  down  to  the  sea  and  sold.  And  as 
time  passed  the  passion  for  blood  grew  on  the  raiders 
until  it  was  greater  than  their  greed.  They  tortured 
to  death  many  whom  they  might  have  sold.  Before 
the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  these  raids,  called 
wars  by  those  who  owned  the  slave-ships,  were  the 


ON  THE   SLAVE-COAST  57 

chief  source  of  supply  for  the  coast  market,  and  after 
the  trade  was  declared  illegal  they  were,  practically, 
the  only  source  of  supply  ;  and  the  people  of  the 
United  States  knew  that  it  was  so. 

There  were  many  little  tribes  and  settlements  on 
the  rivers  in  the  old  days  wherein  the  natives  were 
chiefly  devoted  to  agriculture,  and  these  were  the 
prey  of  the  coast  pirates  until  the  rivers  were  swept 
clean  of  all  peace-loving  inhabitants,  and  the  whole 
population  surviving  was  turned  into  ravaging  pirate 
bands. 

Said  an  eloquent  coast  chief  when  the  English  be 
gan  to  negotiate  with  him  for  the  abolition  of  the 
slave  traffic : 

"I  and  my  army  are  ready,  at  all  times,  to  fight  the 
enemies  of  England,  and  do  anything  the  English 
may  ask  of  me,  except  to  give  up  the  slave-trade. 
No  other  trade  is  known  to  my  people.  It  is  the 
source  of  their  glory  and  wealth.  Their  songs  cele 
brate  their  victories,  and  the  mother  lulls  the  child  to 
sleep  with  notes  of  triumph  over  an  enemy  reduced  to 
slavery." 

Still  another  view  of  the  effect  of  the  growing  de 
mand  for  slaves  is  to  be  given.  "  Treat  men  as  pawns 
and  nine-pins  and  you  shall  suffer  as  well  as  they." 
It  is  chiefly  because  of  the  effect  of  the  trade  on  those 
engaged  in  it,  directly  or  indirectly,  that  their  history 
is  of  present  interest. 

From  furnishing  arms  to  raiders  and  otherwise  in 
citing  them  to  the  work,  the  white  slavers  at  an  early 
day  descended  far  enough  to  take  part  in  the  bloody 
deeds.  Even  Anglo-Saxon  slavers — members  of  the 
only  race  that  in  these  days  does  really  understand 


58  THE  AMERICAN    SLAVE-TRADE 

the  meaning  of  the  words  justice  and  liberty — were 
found  ready  to  pose  as  peacemakers  for  the  purpose 
of  betraying  one  band  of  negroes  into  the  hands  of 
another,  and  of  themselves  beginning  the  bloody 
slaughter  that  followed. 

The  Calabar  (or  Kalaba)  River  empties  into  the 
Bight  of  Biafra — right  at  the  angle  formed  by  the 
coast  lines  of  the  huge  gulf  already  mentioned.  It  is 
a  stream  about  three  miles  wide,  with  from  three  to 
five  fathoms  of  water.  The  banks  are  low  and  covered 
with  mangrove  brush  and  palm-trees.  Numerous 
lagoons  are  found  on  both  sides  of  the  stream,  and 
the  apparent  banks  are  but  a  succession  of  islands. 

On  one  of  these  islands  was  a  settlement  known  as 
Old  Calabar,  or  the  Old  Town.  On  another  was  a  set 
tlement  called  New  Town.  The  people  of  the  two 
settlements  were  of  one  blood,  but  they  hated  each 
other  intensely  because  of  the  rivalry  growing  out  of 
the  slave  trade.  Yet  so  nearly  balanced  were  they 
in  forces  that  only  by  kidnapping  and  an  occasional 
murder  of  an  individual  or  two  could  one  inflict 
injury  on  the  other.  However,  as  time  went  on  the 
New  Town  people  became  somewhat  the  stronger 
through  favor  of  the  slave  captains,  and  then  came 
the  crowning  infamy  of  the  trade  in  that  age. 

It  was  in  the  year  1767.  The  ships  Indian  Queen, 
Duke  of  York,  Nancy,  and  Concord,  of  Bristol ;  the 
Edgar,  of  Liverpool  and  the  Canterbury,  of  Lon 
don,  were  lying  in  the  river  between  the  two  towns. 
Trade  was  dull,  and  the  captains  of  these  ships  got 
together  to  devise  a  plan  to  liven  it  by  taking  advan 
tage  of  the  jealousy  between  the  two  towns,  and  the 
somewhat  superior  force  of  New  Town.  After  brief 


ON   THE   SLAVE-COAST  59 

consultation  it  was  agreed  that  they  should,  on  the 
pretence  of  making  peace  between  the  two  towns, 
invite  the  Old  Town  people  to  come  unarmed  to  the 
ships  for  a  palaver.  Accordingly  messages  were  sent 
to  the  chief,  Ephraim  Robin  John,  his  brother,  Amboe, 
and  some  other  headmen,  requesting  all  the  men  of 
the  town  to  come  to  the  ships  on  a  certain  day,  and 
promising  unlimited  free  rum  to  mellow  the  hearts  of 
the  obdurate  before  the  peace  terms  were  arranged. 
The  captains,  of  course,  pledged  their  honor  to  protect 
the  Old  Town  people  from  all  danger  during  the 
palaver,  and  a  safe  return  ashore. 

Knowing  their  inferiority  in  fighting  force,  the  Old 
Calabar  people  very  gladly  accepted  the  offer  of  these 
ship-captains  to  arrange  for  peace,  and  the  appointed 
day  came  on  with  much  jubilation  in  Old  Calabar. 
For  some  reason  not  given  Chief  Ephraim  did  not  go 
off  to  the  banquet,  but  he  sent  one  of  his  wives  as  a 
present  to  the  Chief  of  New  Town  ;  and  three  of  his 
brothers,  of  whom  Amboe  was  the  oldest,  went  in  one 
canoe  along  with  twenty-seven  other  men,  while  nine 
other  canoes,  none  of  which  was  smaller  than  this, 
followed. 

The  first  ship  visited  was  the  Indian  Queen,  where  a 
seemingly  hearty  welcome  was  extended.  From  the 
Indian  Queen  the  leading  canoe  was  sent  to  the  Edgar 
and  thence  to  the  Duke  of  York,  an  abundance  of  rum 
being  supplied  at  each  ship.  Some  of  the  canoes  fol 
lowed  the  leader,  and  others  distributed  themselves 
among  the  other  ships,  where  the  greater  number  of 
their  crews  went  on  board  and  were  received  with 
lavish  presents  of  rum. 

The  effect  of  the  liquor  was  soon  apparent  in  the 


60  THE  AMERICAN  SLAVE-TRADE 

sleepy  actions  of  the  drinkers,  and  the  moment  for  the 
final  stroke  of  the  conspiracy  was  at  hand.  While 
Amboe  Robin  John  and  his  two  brothers  were  sitting 
in  the  cabin  of  the  Duke  of  York  her  officers  and  crew 
suddenly  dropped  the  rum-cups,  and,  taking  up  mus 
kets,  cutlasses,  and  boarding-pikes,  that  had  been 
placed  ready  for  the  occasion,  they  attacked  the  unsus 
pecting  and  unarmed  negroes. 

A  wild  dash  for  life  was  made.  The  three  brothers 
strove  to  get  out  of  the  cabin-windows,  but  were 
hauled  in  and  ironed.  On  deck  the  negroes  who  strove 
to  resist  were  cut  down,  and  those  who  fled  for  the  rail 
were  tripped  or  slashed  or  stabbed  or  shot,  as  the  case 
might  be.  Even  the  canoes  alongside  were  fired  on 
and  sunk  with  all  who  happened  to  be  in  them,  when 
some  were  drowned,  some  were  dragged  on  board,  and 
a  few  went  swimming  for  the  shore. 

The  noise  of  the  conflict  on  the  Duke  of  York  was  a 
signal  to  the  other  ships,  on  most  of  which  the  natives 
were  attacked  in  like  manner.  And  then  came  the 
inhabitants  of  the  New  Town ;  for  the  slaver  captains 
had  arranged  that  they  should  hide  in  the  man 
groves  along  shore  until  the  attack  was  made,  when 
they  were  to  come  out  with  canoes  and  pick  up  the  Old 
Town  people  who  might  be  swimming  for  the  shore. 
And  these,  being  mad  with  their  thirst  for  blood, 
killed  more  than  they  took  out  of  the  water  for  slaves. 
In  all  more  than  three  hundred  of  the  Old  Town  people 
were  killed  or  enslaved  in  the  course  of  this  raid 
planned  by  the  white  men. 

But  the  end  of  the  story  is  not  yet  told.  Having 
killed  or  captured  the  last  man  in  the  water,  the  New 
Town  people  paddled  to  the  ships  to  receive  their  re- 


ON   THE   SLAVE-COAST  61 

ward  for  their  share  in  the  onslaught.  This  reward 
was  collected,  of  course,  in  the  shape  of  a  liberal  price 
for  each  captured  Old  Town  man,  with  free  drinks 
added,  although  of  the  drinks  they  were  naturally  a 
little  shy  under  the  circumstances.  But  at  the  side  of 
the  Duke  of  York,  one  other  reward  was  wanted — the 
head  of  their  chief  enemy  among  the  captured  Old 
Town  people — the  head  of  Amboe  Robin  John.  But 
knowing  that  the  captain  of  the  Duke  of  York  cared 
nothing  for  their  thirst  for  blood — knowing  that  he  had 
joined  in  the  raid  solely  for  the  profit  there  was  in  it — 
the  chief  of  New  Town,  who  was  known  as  Willy 
Honesty,  said: 

"  Captain,  if  you  will  give  me  that  man,  to  cut  his 
head  off,  I  will  give  you  fche  best  man  in  my  canoe, 
and  you  shall  be  slaved  first  ship." 

At  that  Amboe,  who  could  speak  English,  bowed  his 
head  and,  putting  his  hands  together  in  the  attitude  of 
prayer,  begged  the  captain  of  the  ship  to  retain  him 
on  board.  But  the  captain  forced  him,  his  guest 
under  a  'solemn  promise  of  protection,  over  the  rail, 
where  his  head  was  struck  off,  and  his  body  thrown  to 
the  sharks. 

As  a  result  of  their  treachery  and  murder,  the  slaver 
captains  received  from  twenty-five  to  thirty  slaves 
each,  of  whom  a  third,  perhaps,  were  captured  in 
the  water,  and  had  to  be  purchased  of  the  New  Town 
people. 

The  two  brothers  of  Amboe  Robin  John  were  sold  in 
the  West  Indies,  but  managed  to  escape  to  Virginia, 
and  thence  to  Bristol,  "where  the  captain  who  had 
brought  them,  fearing  he  had  done  wrong,  meditated 
carrying  them  back."  But  before  he  could  sail  with 


(52  THE  AMERICAN    SLAVE-TRADE 

them,  a  shipper  in  the  oil,  ivory,  and  gold-dust  trade, 
who  had  heard  the  story  of  the  massacre,  took  them 
before  a  court  on  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  when  they 
were  declared  free  and  were  sent  home  to  Old  Calabar. 
Through  this  means  Clarkson,  the  famous  abolitionist, 
got  the  authenticated  story,  and  used  it  with  tre 
mendous  effect  in  his  crusade  against  the  trade.  It 
was  not  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  heart  to  approve  such 
doings,  even  in  the  eighteenth  century. 

Time  had  been  when  the  long  and  dangerous  voyage 
had  made  vikings  of  those  engaged  in  it,  but  as  the 
profits  grew  and  swelled  before  the  eyes  of  the  slavers 
all  other  views  were  fogged  from  sight,  and  from  brave 
men,  really  striving  to  do  right,  they  were,  within  half 
a  century,  degraded  to  a  level  beyond  which  there  was 
no  depth  conceivable.  And  degradation  is  the  inevi 
table  fate  of  everyone  who  deliberately  ignores  justice 
in  his  treatment  of  inferiors.  Get  rich  he  may,  but  be 
degraded  hell-low  he  shall  be. 

How  the  degradation  of  the  slaver's  deck  was  con 
tagious  ;  how  it  spread  to  the  owners  of  the  ships ; 
how  these  owners,  while  posing  as  Christians,  became, 
through  inciting  such  acts,  worse  than  the  captains 
who  participated  actively  in  the  infamies ;  how  com 
munities  and  nations  were  thus  made  rotten,  until  at 
last  the  greatest  slave  nation  of  them  all  regained 
health  by  the  most  frightful  of  modern  wars,  can  only 
be  suggested  here. 

After  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  only  no 
table  change  in  the  methods  of  gathering  slaves  for 
market  was  in  the  establishing  of  barracoons — that  is, 
what  a  cowboy  might  call  corrals — in  which  to  herd 
the  slaves  awaiting  shipment.  The  trade  having 


ON   THE   SLAVE-COAST  63 

been  outlawed,  cruisers  were  stationed  on  the  African 
coast  to  stop  the  work  of  the  slavers.  The  slave-ships 
then  had  need  of  such  quick  despatch  as  had  never 
been  dreamed  of  before.  They  came  to  the  coast, 
usually,  disguised  as  honest  traders,  and  watching  for 
a  day  when  the  coast  was  clear  they  got  their  slaves 
quickly  on  board  and  sailed  away.  To  enable  a  ship 
to  load  quickly,  depots  were  established  at  conven 
ient  points,  where  pens  were  built  by  setting  tree- 
trunks  into  the  ground  to  make  a  high  fence.  In 
these  the  slaves  were  held  by  the  hundred — sometimes 
more  than  a  thousand  were  imprisoned  in  one  pen — to 
await  the  arrival  of  a  ship. 

Captain  Philip  Drake,  an  English  slaver,  whose 
diary  was  printed  in  New  York  about  forty  years  ago 
under  the  title  of  "  Revelations  of  a  Slave- Smuggler, " 
describes  incidentally  two  of  the  most  noted  of  these 
slave  stations — that  of  Don  Pedro  Blanco,  on  the  Gal- 
linas  River,  and  that  of  Da  Souza,  at  Whydah. 
uGallinas,"  he  says,  "was  a  depot  and  market  for 
slaves  brought  from  all  streams  that  penetrated  the 
Guinea  Coast,  as  well  as  territory  further  south.  The 
river  was  full  of  small  islands  ;  and  on  several  of 
these,  near  the  sea,  as  well  as  on  the  banks,  were  lo 
cated  factories,  barracoons,  dwelling-houses,  and  store 
houses.  The  success  of  Blanco  had  attracted  a  dozen 
other  traders,  and  the  Don  was  a  prince  among  them. 
In  African  fashion  he  supported  a  harem,  and  quite  a 
retinue  of  house  servants,  guards,  etc.,  besides  clerks 
and  overseers  of  his  barracoons." 

Captain  Canot  describes  Blanco' s  headquarters  in 
greater  detail.  He  says  : 

"  About  a  mile  from  the  river's  mouth  we  found  a 


(54  THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

group  of  islets  on  each  of  which  was  erected  the  fac 
tory  of  some  particular  slave-merchant  belonging  to 
the  grand  confederacy.  Blanco' s  establishments  were 
on  several  of  these  marshy  flats.  On  one,  near  the 
mouth,  he  had  his  place  of  business  or  trade  with 
foreign  vessels,  presided  over  by  his  principal  clerk, 
an  astute  and  clever  gentleman.  On  another  island, 
more  remote,  was  his  residence,  where  a  sister,  for  a 
while,  shared  with  Don  Pedro  his  solitary  home.* 
Here  this  man  of  education  and  refined  address  sur 
rounded  himself  with  every  luxury  that  could  be 
purchased  in  Europe  or  the  Indies,  and  dwelt  in 
a  sort  of  Oriental  but  semi-barbarous  splendor.  Fur 
ther  inland  was  another  islet,  devoted  to  his  seraglio, 
within  whose  recesses  each  of  his  favorites  inhabited 
her  separate  establishment  after  the  fashion  of  the 
natives. 

"The  barracoons  were  made  of  rough  poles  of  the 
hardest  trees,  four  or  six  inches  in  diameter,  driven 
five  feet  in  the  ground  and  clamped  together  by  doub 
le  rows  of  iron  bars.  Their  roofs  were  constructed 
of  similar  wood,  strongly  secured,  and  overlaid  with  a 
thick  thatch  of  long  and  wiry  grass,  rendering  the 
interior  both  dry  and  cool.  Watch-houses,  built  near 
the  entrance,  were  tenanted  by  sentinels,  with  loaded 
muskets.  Each  barracoon  was  tended  by  two  or  four 
Spaniards  or  Portuguese,  but  I  have  rarely  met  a 
more  wretched  class  of  human  beings.  Such  were  the 
surroundings  of  Don  Pedro  in  1836.  Three  years 
later  he  left  the  coast  forever  with  a  fortune  of  nearly 
a  million." 

*  There  are  records  of  more  than  one  woman  being  engaged  in  the 
slave-trade  on  her  own  account. 


A  WILD   DASH   FOR   LIFE   WAS   MADE. 

See  page  60. 


ON   THE   SLAVE-COAST  65 

Captain  Drake,  under  date  of  January  5,  1840, 
writes  of  another  coast  prince  as  follows  : 

"Da  Souza,  or  Cha-Chu,  as  everybody  calls  him,  is 
apparently  a  reckless  voluptuary,  but  the  shrewdest 
slave-trader  on  the  African  coast.  Whydah  was  built 
by  his  enterprise,  and  he  lives  the  life  of  a  prince. 
His  mansion  here  is  like  a  palace,  and  he  has  a  harem 
filled  with  women  from  all  parts  of  the  world.  He 
keeps  up  a  continual  round  of  dissipation,  gambling, 
feasting,  and  indulging  in  every  sensual  pleasure  with 
his  women  and  visitors.  .  .  .  His  house  is  the 
very  abode  of  luxury.  He  must  squander  thousands. 
But  what  is  money  to  a  man  who  has  a  slave-mine  in 
Dahomey,  bringing  hoards  of  wealth  yearly  by  a  hun 
dred  vessels.  Da  Souza  enjoys  almost  a  monopoly  of 
the  coast  trade.  Blanco  has  been  his  only  rival  of 
late  years.  .  .  .  This  morning  Cha-Chu  met  me 
and  proposed  to  supply  me  with  a  wife.  '  You  shall 
have  French,  Spanish,  Greek,  Circassian,  English, 
Dutch,  Italian,  Asiatic,  African  or  American,*  he 
said  laughing." 

The  origin  of  the  demand  for  silks  and  other  fancy 
goods  of  which  Commodore  Perry  made  mention  is 
thus  apparent. 

The  kidnapping  and  the  raiding  were  increased,  al 
though  the  market  price  of  slaves  fell  as  low  as  from 
$12  to  $20  a  head.  The  demand  continued  because 
the  hardships  of  the  slave-life  killed  off  the  slaves 
more  rapidly  than  slave  children  were  born.  This 
was  true  even  in  certain  parts  of  the  United  States. 
Virginia  and  some  other  States  were  breeding  places, 
but  by  a  statement  printed  in  De  Bow's  Review  for 
November,  1858,  it  appears  that  the  slave  population 

5 


(56  THE   AMEK1CAN   SLAVE-TKADE 

of  Louisiana  in  1850  was  244,985.  The  report  of  the 
State  Auditors  to  the  Legislature  of  1858  puts  it  at 
"  264, 985,  an  increase  of  20,167,  or  twelve  and  one-half 
per  cent.,  in  seven  years."  The  slaves  had  increased 
at  the  rate  of  less  than  3,000  a  year  in  spite  of  the  im 
portation  of  thousands  from  the  slave-breeding  States 
and  the  smuggling  of  native  Africans ! 

The  raids  were  extended  hundreds  of  miles  inland, 
according  to  Canot.  In  the  atrocities  of  the  raids 
there  could  be  no  change  for  the  worse,  because 
there  was  no  form  of  torture  or  degradation  be 
low  that  already  existing.  There  was  a  greater  vol 
ume  of  suffering ;  there  could  be  no  worse  degree 
of  it. 

The  history  of  the  slave-trade  is  in  one  respect 
unique.  In  all  other  forms  of  industry  there  was  a 
steady  amelioration  of  the  people  engaged  in  them  as 
civilization  grew  brighter.  On  the  sea  for  instance, 
the  cat  was  abolished  as  a  lawful  instrument  of  dis 
cipline  and  impressment  was  abandoned.  Even  in 
the  killing  of  cattle  humane  methods  came  to  be 
adopted.  But  the  handling  of  slaves,  from  the  be 
ginning  of  the  trade  to  its  end,  was  like  a  portrayal  of 
the  myth  of  the  bottomless  pit. 

And  yet,  black  as  was  the  panorama  of  the  trade  as 
described  in  history,  there  was  one  dash  of  warm 
color  in  it  to  relieve  the  aching  heart  of  the  spectator. 
Says  Charles  W.  Thomas,  U.  S.  N.,  chaplain  to  the 
African  squadron  in  1855,  in  a  work  relating  to  coast 
usages : 

"In  time  of  famine  men  who  have  no  slaves  to  dis 
pose  of,  or  not  enough  to  meet  the  demand,  pawn 
themselves  ...  for  food.  ...  A  degree  of  ad- 


ON    THE   SLAVE-COAST  67 

mirable  self-immolation  is  sometimes  shown  in  such 
cases  of  family  distress  by  a  member  coming  forward 
and  offering  himself  to  the  highest  bidder,  willing  to 
go  anywhere  or  to  be  anything  so  that  he  may  re 
lieve  his  father  and  mother  or  other  dear  relatives 
from  distress." 


CHAPTER   VI 
THE   MIDDLE   PASSAGE 

Stowing  Slaves  for  the  Voyage  from  Africa  to  a  Market— The 
Galleries— Compelled  to  Lie  "  Spoon  -fashion"  to  Save 
Deck  Space — A  Plan  by  which  the  'Tween  Decks  Space  was 
Packed  Full— Effects  of  the  Ship's  Rolling  on  the  Manacled 
Cargo — Living  Slaves  Jettisoned  to  Make  a  Claim  on  the 
Underwriters — Horrors  of  "  The  Blood-Stained  Gloria  "— 
Blinded  Crews  of  the  Rodeur  and  the  Leon— Suicide 
Among  the  Tortured  Slaves — Pitiful  Tale  of  a  Weanling's 
Death — Punishing  Mutiny  on  the  American  Slaver  Ken- 
tttcky—Shvt  Ships  Named  for  Two  of  Our  Presidents. 

THE  term  Middle  Passage  arose  from  the  fact  that 
each  slaving  voyage  was  made  up  of  three  passages — 
the  passage  from  the  home  port  to  the  slave  coast,  the 
passage  from  the  slave  coast  to  the  market,  and  the 
passage  from  that  market  back  to  the  home  port — 
say,  Newport  or  Liverpool.  It  was  during  the  mid 
dle  of  the  three  passages  that  the  slaves  were  on  board. 
This  passage  was  invariably  made,  of  course,  from  the 
east  to  the  west,  and  the  route  lay,  for  the  greater 
part  of  its  length,  in  the  torrid  zone,  even  when  the 
slaves  were  destined  for  the  United  States. 

Most  of  the  ships  built  for  the  trade  in  the  eigh 
teenth  century  had  two  decks.  The  space  between 
the  keel  and  the  lower  deck  was  called  the  lower  hold, 
while  the  space  between  the  two  decks  was  sometimes 

68 


THE    MIDDLE    PASSAGE  69 

called  the  upper  hold,  but  was  generally  designated 
"  'tween  decks."  The  'tween-deck  space  was  reserved 
for  the  slaves.  The  new  slaver  built  at  "  Warren  in  the 
county  of  Bristole,  in  the  colony  of  Rhode  Island," 
was  to  be  "  ten  feet  in  the  hold,  with  three  feet  ten 
inches  betwixt  decks."  That  is  to  say,  the  space  be 
tween  the  decks  where  the  slaves  were  to  be  kept 
during  the  time  the  cargo  was  accumulating  (three  to 
ten  months)  and  while  crossing  the  Atlantic  (six  to  ten 
weeks)  was  a  room  as  long  and  as  wide  as  the  ship,  but 
only  three  feet  ten  inches  high — the  space  of  an  aver 
age  Newport  slaver  in  the  days  when  the  traffic  was 
lawful  and  respected. 

The  men  were  ironed  together,  two  and  two  by  the 
ankles,  but  women  and  children  were  left  unironed. 
They  were  then  taken  to  the  slave-deck,  the  males  for 
ward  of  a  bulkhead  built  abaft  the  main  hatch,  and 
the  women  aft.  There  all  were  compelled  to  lie  down 
with  their  backs  on  the  deck  and  feet  outboard.  In 
this  position  the  irons  on  the  men  were  usually  secured 
to  chains  or  iron  rods  that  were  rove  through  staples 
in  the  deck,  or  the  ceiling  of  the  ship.  The  entire  deck 
was  covered  with  them  lying  so.  They  were  squeezed 
so  tightly  together,  in  fact,  that  the  average  space 
allowed  to  each  one  was  but  sixteen  inches  wide  by  five 
and  a  half  feet  long. 

In  the  Liverpool  ships  in  the  latter  part  of  the  eigh 
teenth  century — ships  that  carried  from  three  hun 
dred  to  five  hundred  slaves  at  a  load — the  average 
height  between  the  two  decks  was  five  feet  two  inches. 
This  statement  of  the  average  distance  between  decks 
was  proven  by  measuring  many  ships.  But  that  is  not 
to  say  that  the  slaves  were  more  comfortable  on  the 


70  THE   AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

ships  having  greater  space  between  decks.  On  the 
contrary,  they  were  less  so.  Economy  of  space  was 
studied  with  a  sharp  eye.  It  would  never  do  to  allow 
all  that  space  between  decks  to  remain  unoccupied. 
So  a  shelf  or  gallery,  usually  six  feet  wide,  was  sus 
pended  midway  between  the  two  decks,  and  on  this  an 
other  layer  of  slaves  was  placed  Of  course  the  deck 
under  the  shelf  or  gallery  was  covered  with  slaves 
packed  as  closely  together  as  possible.  This  shelf  was 
made  of  unplaned  lumber,  and  there  was  no  effort  to 
make  tight  the  joints  between  the  boards. 

The  smaller  ships — the  sloops  and  schooners  that 
had  no  'tween-decks — were  arranged  for  stowing  the 
slaves  by  building  a  temporary  deck  beneath  the  upper 
one.  Having  stowed  the  barrels  of  food  and  water  in 
the  hold  so  as  to  occupy  as  little  space  as  possible,  a 
row  of  stanchions,  fore  and  aft  on  the  keelson,  and 
rising  just  above  the  barrels,  was  erected.  These 
were  connected  by  a  ridge-pole,  and  from  this  ridge 
pole  rafters  were  extended  to  the  sides  of  the  ship. 
On  the  rafters  common  unplaned  boards  were  laid. 
Thus  a  deck  was  laid  that  could  be  easily  removed  on 
occasion. 

The  space  between  this  deck  and  the  upper  one  was 
rarely,  if  ever,  more  than  three  feet  high,  and  cases  are 
on  record  where  it  was  considerably  less  than  two 
feet — in  this  century  even  as  little  as  eighteen  inches. 

Most  of  the  vessels  used  after  the  trade  was  out 
lawed  were  of  the  small,  single-decked  class.  Be 
cause  the  trade  was  unlawful  these  slavers  had  to  be 
prepared  to  pass  as  palm-oil  buyers  when  they  were 
overhauled  by  a  cruiser,  and  they  could  not  do  that  if 
they  had  a  slave-deck  laid.  Accordingly  the  slave- 


THE   MIDDLE    PASSAGE  71 

deck  was  not  laid  until  the  slaves  were  on  the  beach 
ready  to  embark.  Being  then  in  great  haste  the  slaver 
did  not  usually  go  to  the  trouble  of  erecting  stanchions 
and  building  his  deck  substantially.  He  merely  laid 
his  rafters  or  timbers  on  the  barrels,  as  best  he  might ; 
spread  the  boards  over  them,  with  a  nail  driven  in  here 
and  there,  perhaps,  but  sometimes  with  never  a  nail  to 
hold  them  in  place,  and  then  the  slaves  were  brought 
on  board  and  jammed  into  the  thin  space  with  less 
regard  for  their  comfort  than  is  shown  now  for  hogs 
shipped  in  a  two-deck  stock-car. 

In  fact,  when  the  cruisers  became  at  last  somewhat 
vigilant,  cargoes  were  shipped  in  vessels  that  had  no 
slave-deck  ;  the  slaves  were  piled  on  the  barrels  of  food 
and  water  until  the  barrels  were  blanketed  out  of 
sight. 

But  the  limit  of  devilish  ingenuity  in  stowing  slaves 
was  not  reached  until  the  trade  was  outlawed.  To  in 
crease  the  number  of  slaves  on  the  deck  they  were  then 
compelled  to  lie  on  their  sides,  breast  to  back,  "  spoon 
fashion,"  to  use  the  term  then  common.  Where  the 
'tween-deck  space  was  two  feet  high  or  more  the  slaves 
were  stowed  sitting  up  in  rows,  one  crowded  into  the 
lap  of  another,  and  with  legs  on  legs,  like  riders  on  a 
crowded  toboggan.  In  storms  the  sailors  had  to  put 
on  the  hatches,  and  seal  tight  the  openings  into  the 
infernal  cesspool.  It  was  asserted  by  the  naval  officers 
who  were  stationed  on  the  coast  to  stop  the  traffic  that 
in  certain  states  of  the  weather  they  could  detect  the 
odor  of  a  slaver  further  away  than  they  could  see  her 
on  a  clear  night.  The  odor  was  often  unmistakable 
at  a  distance  of  five  miles  down  wind. 

It  was  possible  for  a  humane  ship-master,  such  as 


72  THE  AMERICAN  SLAVE-TRADE 

Captain  Hugh  Crow,  the  one-eyed  slaver  of  Liverpool, 
by  alleviating  the  sufferings  of  the  slaves  by  means 
of  good  food,  daily  washings,  and  some  effort  to  make 
them  cheerful,  such  as  playing  musical  instruments, 
etc.,  to  keep  the  death  rate  down  to  one  or  two  per 
centum.  Captain  John  Newton,  who  became  a  famous 
preacher,  says  regarding  his  own  experience: 

"I  had  the  pleasure  to  return  thanks  in  the  churches 
for  an  African  voyage  performed  without  any  acci 
dent  or  the  loss  of  a  man ;  and  it  was  much  noticed 
and  acknowledged  in  the  town.  I  question  if  it  is  not 
the  only  instance  of  the  kind.  ...  It  [the  slave- 
trade]  is,  indeed,  accounted  a  genteel  employment, 
and  is  usually  very  profitable." 

Other  captains  did  carry  a  cargo  each  without  the 
loss  of  a  man,  but  such  passages  were  rare.  The  or 
dinary  slaver  captain  at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  cen 
tury  was  not  so  careful,  while  many  a  slaver  was  sim 
ply  without  any  sympathy  for  the  unfortunates. 

The  story  of  the  Zong.  Captain  Luke  Collingwood, 
illustrates  this  statement.  The  Zong  sailed  from  the 
island  of  St.  Thomas,  off  the  coast  of  Africa,  on  Sep 
tember  6,  1781,  bound  for  Jamaica,  with  four  hundred 
and  forty  slaves.  The  water  on  board  was  insufficient 
in  quantity,  and  the  slaves  began  to  die  for  want  of  it. 
On  arriving  off  Jamaica,  Collingwood  made  the  mis 
take  of  supposing  he  was  off  Hay  ti,  and  the  death-rate 
was  now  so  great  that  he  began  to  think  the  voyage 
would  be  unprofitable.  On  casting  about  for  some 
way  of  saving  the  owners  from  the  impending  loss  of 
profits,  Captain  Collingwood  remembered  that  the 
underwriters  were  always  obliged  to  pay  for  all  cargo 
jettisoned — thrown  overboard — either  to  lighten  the 


EVERY  SOUL  ON  BOARD  WAS   BLIND. 

See  page  76. 


THE    MIDDLE    PASSAGE  73 

ship  or  to  provide  in  any  way  for  the  safety  of  the 
cargo  retained  on  board.  In  short,  if  the  slaves  died 
of  disease  or  from  lack  of  water  while  on  board  the 
ship,  the  loss  would  fall  on  the  ship  ;  but  if  he  threw 
overboard  some  of  them  so  that  he  would  have  enough 
food  and  water  to  abundantly  nourish  those  remaining, 
he  could  collect  the  price  of  those  thrown  into  the  sea 
from  the  underwriters. 

Accordingly,  one  hundred  and  thirty-two  of  the  most 
wretched  slaves  were  brought  on  deck.  Of  these  one 
hundred  and  twenty-two  were  thrown  to  the  sharks 
that  swarmed  about  the  ship ;  but  ten,  seeing  that 
they  were  to  be  thrown  over,  and  that  most  of  the 
sufferers  were  writhing  in  abject  terror — these  ten 
struggled  to  their  feet,  and,  in  spite  of  cramps  and 
weakness,  staggered  to  the  rail  and  plunged  over,  that 
they  might  show  the  others  how  to  die. 

The  underwriters  refused  to  pay,  however ;  the  case 
went  to  court,  and  the  jury  decided  in  favor  of  the 
ship.  Solicitor-General  J.  Lee  refused  to  carry  the 
case  to  a  higher  court.  He  said  the  master  had  "an 
unquestionable  right"  to  throw  the  slaves  into  the 
sea. 

"  This  is  a  case  of  goods  and  chattels,"  said  he.  "  It 
is  really  so  ;  it  is  a  case  of  throwing  over  goods  ;  for 
to  this  purpose,  and  the  purpose  of  insurance,  they 
are  goods  and  property." 

The  insurers  appealed  the  case,  and  the  court  above, 
Lord  Mansfield,  presiding,  in  spite  of  the  plain  man 
date  of  statute — disregarding  the  obvious  meaning  of 
the  laws,  with  the  making  of  which  he  had  nothing  to 
do — yielded  to  Ms  sense  of  humanity,  decided  accord 
ing  to  "  the  higher  law,"  and  said,  "  It  is  a  very  shock- 


74  THE   AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

ing  case."  He  granted  a  new  trial,  at  which  the  in 
surers  escaped  paying  for  the  loss.  So  the  laws,  being 
unjust,  were  violated  —  disregarded  even  —  by  the 
courts  before  they  were  repealed.  Such  sacrifice  of  a 
part  of  a  cargo  of  slaves  to  save  the  others  was  com 
mon  enough  in  the  history  of  the  trade. 

For  a  picture  of  a  slaver  of  the  lower  class  take  that 
given  by  Drake  in  his  "  Revelations  of  a  Slave-Smug 
gler."  He  says: 

We  had  left  the  Verds,  and  were  making  southerly  in  bal 
last,  when  we  overhauled  a  Portuguese  schooner,  and  ran 
alongside.  She  had  a  full  cargo  of  slaves,  with  a  large  quan 
tity  of  gold-dust,  and  our  captain,  Ruiz,  proposed  to  attack 
her.  The  crew  were  ready,  and,  inspired  by  ruin,  soon  mas 
tered  the  schooner's  hands ;  our  captain  blowing  out  the 
brains  of  a  passenger,  who  owned  the  gold.  Some  of  the 
Portuguese  leaped  overboard,  with  spars ;  but  Ruiz  had  a 
boat  manned,  and  knocked  the  survivors  on  the  head  with 
axes.  The  gold-dust  and  negroes  were  then  quickly  trans 
ferred  to  the  slaver,  the  schooner  was  scuttled,  and  we  kept 
on  our  way  to  the  land  with  190  slaves.  .  .  .  We  then 
ran  for  Accra,  and  landed  at  Papoe,  a  town  belonging  to 
a  Dahoman  chief,  where  we  found  600  negroes,  waiting  for  a 
Spanish  slaver,  soon  expected.  Ruiz  bought  400  of  these, 
paying  in  the  Portuguese  gold-dust,  and  hauled  our  course 
for  the  Atlantic  voyage. 

But  this  was  to  be  my  last  trip  in  the  blood-stained 
Gloria.  Hardly  were  we  out  a  fortnight  before  it  was  dis 
covered  that  our  roystering  crew  had  neglected  to  change  the 
sea- water  which  had  served  as  our  ballast,  in  the  lower  casks, 
and  which  ought  to  have  been  replaced  with  fresh  water  in 
Africa.  We  were  drawing  from  the  last  casks  before  this  dis 
covery  was  made  ;  and  the  horror  of  our  situation  sobered 
Captain  Ruiz.  He  gave  orders  to  hoist  the  precious  remnant 
abaft  the  main  grating,  and  made  me  calculate  how  long  it 


THE    MIDDLE    PASSAGE  75 

would  sustain  the  crew  and  cargo.  I  found  that  half  a  gill  a 
day  would  hold  out  to  the  Spanish  main  ;  and  it  was  de 
cided  that,  in  order  to  save  our  cargo,  we  should  allow  the 
slaves  a  half  gill,  and  the  crew  a  gill,  each  day.  Then  began 
a  torture  worse  than  death  to  the  blacks.  Pent  in  their  close 
dungeons,  to  the  number  of  nearly  five  hundred,  they  suffered 
continual  torment.  Our  crew  and  drivers  were  unwilling  to 
allow  even  the  half  gill  per  diem,  and  quarrelled  fiercely  over 
their  own  stinted  rations.  Our  cargo  had  been  stowed  on 
the  platforms  closer  than  I  ever  saw  slaves  stowed  before  or 
since.  Instead  of  lowering  buckets  of  water  to  them,  as  was 
customary,  it  became  necessary  to  pour  the  water  into  half- 
pint  measures.  Those  furthest  from  the  gratings  never  got  a 
drop.  .  .  .  Death  followed  so  fast  that  in  a  short  time 
at  least  a  hundred  men  and  women  were  shackled  to  dead 
partners.  Our  captain  and  crew,  as  well  as  myself,  drank 
hard.  .  .  .  The  dead  were  not  thrown  overboard.  At 
last  Captain  Kuiz  ordered  the  hatches  down,  and  swore  he 
would  make  the  run  on  our  regular  water  rations,  and  take 
the  chances  of  his  stock. 

That  night  we  caroused,  and  satisfied  our  thirst,  whilst 
the  negroes  suffocated  below.  Next  morning  came  a  storm, 
which  drove  us  on  our  course  a  hundred  knots.  Two  days 
afterward,  Ruiz  and  four  of  the  men  were  taken  suddenly  ill 
with  a  disease  that  baffled  my  medical  knowledge.  Their 
tongues  swelled,  and  grew  black ;  their  flesh  turned  yellow, 
and  in  six  hours  they  were  dead.  The  first  mate  went  next, 
and  then  three  others  of  the  crew,  and  a  black  driver,  whose 
body  became  leprous  with  yellow  spots.  I  began  to  notice  a 
strange,  fetid  smell  pervading  the  vessel,  and  a  low,  heavy 
fog  on  deck,  almost  like  steam.  Then  the  horrid  truth 
became  apparent.  "Our  rotting  negroes  under  hatches  had 
generated  the  plague,  and  it  was  a  malaria  or  death-mist  that 
I  saw  rising.  At  this  time  all  our  men  but  three  and  myself 
had  been  attacked  ;  and  we  abandoned  the  Gloria,  in  her 
long  boat,  taking  the  remnant  of  water,  a  sack  of  biscuit,  and 
a  rum  beaker,  with  what  gold-dust  and  other  valuables  we 


76  THE   AMERICAN    SLAVE-TEADE 

could  hastily  gather  up.  We  left  nine  of  our  late  comrades 
dead  and  five  dying  on  the  Gloria's  deck.  After  running  for 
two  days  we  struck  a  current,  and  in  three  more  were  drifted 
to  the  island  of  Tortola. 

People  familiar  with  Whittier's  poems  will  recall 
"  The  Slave  Ships,"  founded  on  the  experience  of  the 
French  slaver  Rodeur.  In  1819  while  she  was  on  her 
way  to  Guadeloupe  with  but  one  hundred  and  sixty- 
two  slaves  on  board,  a  disease  of  the  eyes  appeared  in 
the  hold  and  spread  rapidly.  To  save  the  unaffected 
and  to  ground  a  claim  on  thpundef writers,  ite  captain 
threw  thirty-six  of  the  negroes*  ajive  into  Jibe  sea.  Tvfee. 
disease  continued  its  ravages,  however,  and  soon  at 
tacked  the  crew  with  such  malignancy  that  in  a  short 
time  all  but  one  of  them  became  blind. 

In  this  terrorful  condition  a  sail  was  seen,  and  the 
one  man  who  had  the  use  of  his  eyes  steered  the  Ro 
deur  toward  her.  In  a  short  time  she  was  seen  to  be 
drifting  derelict  with  all  sail  set,  though  men  were 
wandering  about  her  deck.  The  man  on  the  Rodeur 
hailed  her,  and  then  her  crew  swarmed  to  her  rail  and 
begged  for  help,  saying  that  she  was  the  Spanish 
slaver  Leon,  and  that  every  soul  on  board  was 
blind  through  the  ophthalmia  generated  among  the 
slaves. 

The  Rodeur  reached  port  steered  by  the  one  man, 
but  he  went  blind  on  reaching  shore.  The  Leon  was 
never  seen  again. 

To  the  stories  of  the  ills  of  the  Middle  Passage  so 
far  given  must  be  added  those  which  relate  to  the 
mental  sufferings  of  the  slaves  and  those  that  grew 
out  of  the  deliberate  cruelty  of  the  crews.  Indeed  it 
is  not  to  much  to  say  that  the  saddest  result  of  the 


THE   'MIDDLE    PASSAGE  77 

slave  trade  now  visible  is  the  mental  attitude  of  the 
white  race  of  America  toward  the  colored. 

"The  ships,"  said  Dr.  Alexander  Falconbridge,  of 
the  slaver  Tartar ',  "  were  fitted  up  with  a  view  of  pre 
venting  slaves  jumping  overboard,"  but  an  opening 
was  left  in  the  netting  set  above  the  rail  in  order  that 
refuse  might  be  dumped  overboard,  and  through  this 
many  a  negro  leaped  to  his  death.  Others  managed 
to  secrete  rope-yarn  or  strong  twine,  by  which  a  noose 
was  made  and  secured  to  a  cleat  overhead,  and  so  the 
slave  strangled  himself  to  death.  One  tore  his  throat 
open  with  his  finger-nails.  Many  others,  to  kill  them 
selves,  refused  to  eat.  They  were  flogged  to  compel 
them  to  eat,  but  this  failed  so  often  that  it  was  the 
custom  for  all  slavers  to  carry  a  tube-like  instrument 
used  by  surgeons  to  force  food  into  the  mouths  of  pa 
tients  suffering  from  lockjaw.  This  was  driven  into 
the  mouths  of  obstinate  negroes,  smashing  lips  and 
teeth,  until  food  could  be  forced  down  the  throat.  In 
stances  were  described  where  the  lips  were  burned  with 
coals  and  hot  irons  to  compel  the  negroes  to  open  their 
mouths  and  swallow  the  food. 

How  men  and  women  were  flogged  to  death ;  how 
they  died  smiling  under  the  blows,  saying,  "Soon  we 
shall  be  free"  ;  how  they  leaped  overboard  and  exult- 
ingly  bade  farewell  to  friends  who  rejoiced  in  their 
escape— all  that  has  been  told  over  and  again  by  the 
slaver  captains  themselves. 

One  of  the  most  pitiful  stories  known  to  these 
annals  is  told  in  connection  with  the  slaver  habit  of 
compelling  his  slaves  to  eat.  There  was  a  child,  less 
than  a  year  old,  that  could  not  eat  the  boiled  rice  pre 
pared  for  it,  and  the  captain  decided  that  it  was  stub- 


78  THE   AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

born,  rather  than  sick.  Getting  angry  as  the  little 
one  repeatedly  turned  its  head  from  the  food,  he 
grabbed  it  from  its  mother's  arms.  He  tied  a  twelve- 
pound  stick  of  wood  to  its  neck  as  a  punishment,  and 
thereafter  flogged  it  with  the  cat  at  each  meal-time 
until  the  fourth  day,  when,  after  the  whipping,  it 
died.  To  make  complete  his  work,  the  captain,  whip 
in  hand,  then  called  the  child' s  mother  to  pick  up  the 
little  body  and  throw  it  over  the  rail.  She  refused  at 
first,  but,  tortured  by  the  cat,  she  took  up  the  child, 
walked  to  the  ship's  side,  and  turning  her  head  away 
dropped  the  body  into  the  sea. 

Of  the  truth  of  the  story  there  is  no  doubt.  It  was 
told  under  oath  before  a  committee  of  Parliament, 
and  of  all  the  tales  of  inhuman  deeds  perpetrated  by 
the  slavers,  none  had  more  effect  in  ridding  the  earth 
of  the  traffic  than  this. 

From  one  point  of  view  the  picture  of  a  gang  of 
slaves  when  on  deck  for  an  airing  was  one  of  the  most 
shocking  known  to  the  trade.  For  the  slaver  captain 
knew  how  much  brooding  over  their  wrongs  tended  to 
promote  disease,  and  his  chief  object  in  bringing  them 
on  deck  was  to  cheer  them.  He  wanted  them  to  sing 
and  dance,  and  he  saw  that  they  did  it  too — he  ap 
plied  the  lash  not  only  to  make  them  eat,  but  to  make 
them  sing.  There  they  stood  in  rows  and  as  the 
brawny  slaver,  whip  in  hand,  paced  to  and  fro,  they 
sang  their  home-songs,  and  danced,  each  with  his  free 
foot  slapping  the  deck. 

When  the  slaves  tried  to  kill  themselves  because 
they  believed  in  the  resurrection  and  a  life  in  their 
old  homes  after  death,  some  of  the  slaver  captains 
mutilated  the  bodies  of  the  dead  by  cutting  off  and 


THE    MIDDLE    PASSAGE  79 

carrying  along  the  heads  or  other  portions  of  the 
bodies,  and  telling  the  slaves  that  thus  the  dead 
would  be  wholly  unable  to  exist,  or,  at  any  rate,  to 
enjoy  the  life  they  hoped  for  after  death.  But  the 
slaves  smiled  in  contempt  when  they  heard  that. 
They  were  of  a  heathen  race.  They  had  never  learned 
the  Christian's  hope  of  heaven,  but  something  had  told 
them  (who  shall  say  how  ?)  that  the  body,  though  it  be 
"sown  in  corruption,  it  is  raised  in  incorruption  " 
that  though  it  be  "  sown  a  natural  body,  it  is  raised  a 
spiritual  body."  And  they — those  heathen — trusted 
implicitly  the  light  they  had. 

It  is  a  most  interesting  fact  that  while  the  slave 
trade  developed  vikings  when  it  was  a  legal  and 
reputable  traffic,  it  developed  a  race  devoid  of  every 
manly  instinct  when  it  became  unlawful.  As  illus 
trating  this  fact,  it  may  be  said  that  in  the  nineteenth 
century  the  slavers  dealt  in  children  as  far  as  pos 
sible.  Children  did  not  bring  as  large  a  price  as  field 
hands,  of  course,  but  they  cowered  under  torture,  and 
there  was  no  fear  of  their  rising  against  the  crew. 

But  many  adult  cargoes  were  shipped,  and  the 
American  slaver  Kentucky,  Captain  George  H.  Doug 
lass,  master,  and  Thomas  H.  Boyle,  mate,  was  one 
that  carried  adults.  On  September  9,  1844,  she  sailed 
from  Inhambane  with  five  hundred  and  thirty  slaves 
in  her  hold.  On  the  voyage  there  was  an  insurrection. 
It  was  quickly  subdued  by  force,  but,  through  fear  of 
more  trouble  of  the  kind,  the  captain  determined  to 
punish  the  ringleaders.  In  all,  forty-six  men  and  one 
woman  were  hanged  and  shot  to  death. 

"They  were  ironed  or  chained,  two  together,  and 
when  they  were  hung,  a  rope  was  put  round  their 


80  THE   AMERICAN    SLAVE-TRADE 

necks  and  they  drawn  up  to  the  yard-arm  clear  of  the 
sail,"  said  one  of  the  crew  when  testifying  under 
oath.  "This  did  not  kill  them,  but  only  choked  or 
strangled  them.  They  were  then  shot  in  the  breast 
and  the  bodies  thrown  overboard.  If  only  one  of  two 
that  were  ironed  together  was  to  be  hung,  the  rope 
was  put  around  his  neck  and  he  was  drawn  up  clear 
of  the  deck,  and  his  leg  laid  across  the  rail  and 
chopped  off  to  save  the  irons  and  release  him  from 
his  companion,  who  at  the  same  time  lifted  up  his  leg 
till  the  other  was  chopped  off  as  aforesaid,  and  he 
released. 

"  The  bleeding  negro  was  then  drawn  up,  shot  in 
the  breast,  and  thrown  overboard  as  aforesaid.  The 
legs  of  about  one  dozen  were  chopped  off  in  this  way. 

"  When  the  feet  fell  on  deck  they  were  picked  up 
by  the  crew  and  thrown  overboard,  and  sometimes 
they  shot  at  the  body  while  it  still  hung  living,  and 
all  kinds  of  sport  was  made  of  the  business. 

"  When  the  woman  was  hung  up  and  shot,  the  ball 
did  not  take  effect,  and  she  was  thrown  overboard  liv 
ing,  and  was  seen  to  struggle  some  time  in  the  water 
before  she  sunk ;  and  deponent  further  says,  that 
after  this  was  over  they  brought  up  and  flogged  about 
twenty  men  and  six  women.  The  flesh  of  some  of 
them  where  they  were  flogged  putrefied  and  came  off 
in  some  cases  six  or  eight  inches  in  diameter,  and  in 
places  half  an  inch  thick." 

This  story,  sworn  to  before  United  States  Consul 
George  William  Gordon,  was  repeated  by  Consul 
Henry  A.  Wise  (of  Virginia)  in  an  official  communi 
cation  to  Secretary  of  State  James  Buchanan,  under 
date  of  May  1,  1845.  James  K.  Polk  was  then  Presi- 


THE    MIDDLE    PASSAGE  81 

dent  of  the  United  States,  and  this  story  and  other 
stones  of  like  character  were  sent  to  the  Congress  of 
the  United  States  in  House  Ex.  Doc.  61,  30th  Congress 
second  session,  and  Senate  Ex.  Doc.  28  of  the  same 
session. 

Said  Consul  Wise  in  an  official  letter  dated  Febru 
ary  18,  1845 : 

"  I  beseech,  I  implore,  the  President  of  the  United  States 
to  take  a  decided  stand  on  this  subject.  You  have  no  con 
ception  of  the  bold  effrontery  and  the  flagrant  outrages  of  the 
African  slave-trade,  and  of  the  shameless  manner  in  which  its 
worst  crimes  are  licensed  here.  And  every  patriot  in  our  land 
would  blush  for  our  country  did  he  know  and  see,  as  I  do, 
how  our  own  citizens  sail  and  sell  our  flag  to  the  uses  and 
abuses  of  that  accursed  traffic.  We  are  a  'by-word  among 
nations ' — the  only  people  who  can  now  fetch  and  carry  any 
and  everything  for  the  slave-trade  .  .  .  and,  because  we 
are  the  only  people  who  can,  are  we  to  allow  our  proudest 
privilege  to  be  perverted,  and  to  pervert  our  own  glorious  flag 
into  the  pirate's  flag?  " 

Neither  James  Buchanan  nor  James  K.  Polk,  nor 
any  other  member  of  any  administration  from  and 
including  that  of  Andrew  Jackson  down  to  the  Civil 
War,  did  anything  that  could  in  justice  be  called  an 
effort  to  stop  the  use  of  the  American  flag  for  cover 
ing  such  atrocities. 

It  is  a  significant  fact  that  there  was  one  slave-ship 
named  Martin  Van  Buren  and  another  named  James 
Buchanan.  It  is  a  pity  that  these  two  slavers  could 
not  have  been  preserved  in  the  navy  yard  of  the 
American  metropolis  as  monuments  to  the  officials 
whose  names  they  bore,  and  to  remind  the  shuddering 
spectator  that  along  with  our  days  of  magnificent 
glory  we  have  had  our  age  of  infinite  shame. 


CHAPTER   VII 
THE  SLAVERS'   PROFIT 

Nine  Hundred  Pounds  on  One  Voyage  of  the  Newport  Slaver 
Sanderson,  a  Vessel  that  was  Offered  for  Sale  at  £450 
with  No  Buyers — One  Voyage  of  the  Liverpool  Slaver 
Enterprise  that  Paid  £24,430 — Details  of  Expenses  and 
Receipts  on  a  Voyage  of  the  Ninety-ton  Schooner  La  For- 
tuna— A  Baltimore  Schooner's  Profit  of  $100,000— When 
the  l^enus  Cleared  $200,000—  Sums  Paid  to  Captains  and 
Crews — Slave  Transportation  Compared  with  Modern  Pas 
senger  Traffic. 

IT  has  been  repeatedly  asserted  in  the  course  of  this 
work  that  the  slave-trade  was,  on  the  whole,  enor 
mously  profitable,  and  it  is  now  proposed  to  give  in  a 
business  way  some  facts  in  verification  of  those  asser 
tions.  There  were,  of  course,  many  voyages  that  went 
awry,  but  that  that  was  not  the  usual  course  of  the 
trade  is  abundantly  proved.  Thus,  the  fact  that  New 
port  had  one  hundred  and  fifty  vessels  in  the  trade  by 
the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  shows  what 
Newport  merchants  made  out  of  the  traffic.  That 
Liverpool  had  but  one  sloop  of  thirty  tons  in  the  trade 
in  1729,  while  in  1751  "no  fewer  than  fifty-three 
vessels,  with  an  aggregate  burthen  of  5,334  tons,  sailed 
from  the  Mersey  for  the  slave-coast,"  shows  how  Liver 
pool  slavers  prospered.  But  something  more  than 

these  general  statements  must  prove  of  interest. 

83 


THE    SLAVER'S    PROFIT  83 

To  go  back  to  an  early  period,  we  find  that  the 
negroes  imported  on  the  White  Horse  (the  first  slaver 
sent  out  from  New  York  for  the  direct  trade  with 
Africa)  were  sold  at  auction  for  an  average  price  of 
$125  each  for  the  choice  stock.  The  negroes  had  arrived 
in  a  bad  condition,  but  they  were  doctored  up  for  the 
sale,  and  brought  good  prices  for  that  day,  so  that  the 
slaver  made  a  good  profit  even  though  the  purchasers 
afterward  lost  some  of  their  slaves.  The  exact  profit  is 
not  given,  but  the  fact  that  a  profit  was  made  is  proved 
by  the  act  of  the  directors  of  the  West  India  Company 
taking  the  trade  thereafter  into  their  own  hands. 

When  Captain  David  Lindsay,  of  the  Sanderson, 
sold  the  cargo  he  landed  "in  helth  and  fatt"  in 
1753  he  received  £35  each  for  twenty-five  of  his 
slaves,  £30  each  for  three  more,  while  the  remainder 
brought  prices  ranging  down  to  £21,  save  one  small 
boy  who  brought  £15.  All  told,  forty-seven  slaves  sold 
here  brought  £1,432.  The  remaining  slaves  were  car 
ried  to  Newport,  but  there  is  no  record  of  their  sale. 
We  may  guess  that  they  realized  about  £250,  or,  say, 
a  total  of  £1,680  for  the  cargo  of  slaves. 

The  net  profit  on  this  voyage  cannot  be  ascertained 
now,  but  Captain  George  Scott's  letter  of  1740  says 
that  a  prime  slave  cost  £12  in  the  unsalable  dry  goods, 
while  other  documents  show  that  in  1753  a  prime  slave 
cost  one  hundred  and  ten  gallons  of  rum,  or  £11.  The 
gross  profit  on  the  slaves  sold  in  Barbadoes  was  doubt 
less  as  much  as  £900,  and  the  net  profit  on  the  whole 
voyage,  after  the  remaining  slaves  were  sold  elsewhere, 
was  at  least  £900.  And  yet  the  Sanderson  had  been 
offered  for  sale  several  years  earlier  for  £450,  and 
during  this  voyage,  as  we  have  learned  already,  her 


84  THE   AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

captain  was  able  to  see  "  daylight  al  round  "  through 
the  open  seams  in  her  bows. 

In  Williams' s  "  Liverpool  Slave  Trade"  it  is  shown 
that  in  1786  the  Liverpool  slavers  sold  31,690  slaves 
for  £1,282,690  net.  The  gross  value  of  the  goods  ex 
ported  to  Africa  was  £864,895,  while  the  maintenance 
of  the  slaves  cost  £15,845.  That  leaves  £401,950  for 
the  owners  of  the  slavers,  from  which,  however,  they 
had  to  pay  their  crews  and  the  wear  and  tear  of  the 
ships.  These  expenses  are  classed  as  "freight,"  at 
£103,488,  but  the  fact  is  there  was  a  profit  on  the 
"  freight."  Nevertheless,  calling  the  freight  all  ex 
pense,  the  clean  profit  was  £298,462. 

That  is  an  estimate  giving  the  expenses  at  the  highest 
limit,  and  the  sales  at  the  lowest.  Going  more  into 
detail,  the  returns  for  a  single  good  voyage  are  given. 

The  ship  Lottery,  Captain  John  Whittle,  belonged 
to  Mr.  Thomas  Ley  land,  who  was  "  thrice  Mayor  of 
Liverpool."  She  sailed  from  the  Mersey  on  July  6, 
1798,  and  passed  Barbadoes  on  November  27th  with 
four  hundred  and  sixty  negroes.  Of  these  four  hun 
dred  and  fifty-three  were  sold  for  £22,726  net — the 
owner  received  that  sum  after  paying  all  commissions 
and  charges.  From  this  sum,  however,  must  be  de 
ducted  £2,307  lOo.  for 'the  ship's  outfit  and  £8,326  14s. 
for  the  cost  of  the  cargo  sent  out  to  Africa,  a  total  of 
£10,634,  which  leaves  the  sum  of  £12,091  profit  on  the 
voyage.  That  is  to  say  the  profit  on  each  negro  was 
over  £26,  and  it  was  earned  in  six  months. 

The  Lottery  in  another  voyage  cleared  £19,021.  The 
Enterprise  on  a  cargo  of  three  hundred  and  ninety- 
two  slaves  landed,  cleared  £24,430.  The  Fortune  on 
three  hundred  and  forty- three  cleared  £9,487.  The 


THE    SLAVER'S    PROFIT  85 

Louisa  on  three  hundred  and  twenty-six  slaves  cleared 
.£19,133.  The  Bloom,  belonging  to  another  house,  on 
three  hundred  and  seven  slaves  cleared  £8,123.  An 
average  of  six  voyages  shows  a  clean  profit  of  £43 
per  slave.  And  to  this  profit  was  added  that  on  the 
West  India  goods  carried  to  Liverpool  when  the  ship 
went  home  to  refit. 

Other  estimates  of  single  voyages  give  profits  rang 
ing  from  £12  up  to  £40  per  head  landed. 

An  important  element  in  the  trade  was  the  cost  of 
the  ship.  The  records  show  that  a  good  ship  fit  to 
carry  from  three  hundred  to  four  hundred  slaves  could 
be  built  for  £7,500.  Such  a  ship  would  make  a  clean 
profit  of  from  £7,000  to  £20,000  each  voyage,  and  it  is 
certain  that  some  of  them  made  as  high  as  five  voyages 
before  they  became  so  foul  that  they  had  to  be  aban 
doned. 

Of  the  profits  made  when  the  trade  was  declared  to 
be  piracy  we  have  abundant  records,  even  though  it 
was  a  smuggling  business. 

Captain  Theodore  Canot  in  his  autobiography, 
"Twenty  Years  of  an  African  Slaver"  (it  is  prac 
tically  an  autobiography),  has  the  following  (p.  101) : 

As  the  reader  may  scarcely  credit  so  large  a  profit,  I  sub 
join  an  account  of  the  fitting  of  a  slave  vessel  from  Havana  in 
1827,  and  the  liquidation  of  her  voyage  in  Cuba  : 

1. — Expenses  Out. 

Cost  of  La  Fortuna,  a  90-ton  schooner $3,700.00 

Fitting  out,  sails,  carpenter's  and  cooper's 

bills 2,500.00 

Provisions  for  crew  and  slaves 1,115.00 

Wages  advanced  to  18  men  before  the  mast       900.00 


THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

Wages  advanced  to  captain,  mates,  boat 
swain,  cook  and  steward 440.00 

200,000  cigars  and  500  doubloons,  cargo  .  10,900.00 

Clearance  and  hush-money 200.00 

Total $19,755.00 

Commission  at  5$ 987.00 

Full  cost  of  voyage  out $20,742.00 

2. — Expenses  Home. 

Captain's  head-money,  at  $8  a  head $1,736.00 

Mate's          "        "         "  $4  "     "    873.00 

Second    mate's    and    boatswain's    head- 
money,  at  $2  each 873.00 

Captain's  wages 219.78 

First  mate's  wages 175.56 

Second  mate's  and  boatswain's  wages 307.12 

Cook's  and  steward's  wages 264.00 

18  sailors'  wages 1,972.00 

Total  of  expenses  out  and  home. $27,162.46 

3. — Expenses  in  Havana. 

Government  officers,  at  $8  per  head $1,736.00 

My  commission  on  217  slaves,  expenses  off    5,565.00 

Consignees'  commission 3,873.00 

217  slave  dresses 634.00 

Extra  expenses  of  all  kinds 1,000.00 

Total  of  all  expenses $39,970.46 

4. — Returns. 

Vessel  at  auction $3,950.00 

Proceeds  of  217  slaves 77,469.00 

$81,419.00 


THE    SLAVER'S     PROFIT  87 

Resume. 

Total  Returns $81,419.00 

"      Expenses 39,970.46 

Net  Profit $41,448.54 

With  a  schooner  that  cost  $3,700  and  a  total  capital 
all  told,  amounting  to  less  than  $21,000,  the  net  profit 
in  six  months  was  $41,438.54. 

Writing  on  the  same  subject,  Captain  Philip  Drake 
tells  about  one  voyage  he  made  in  the  schooner  Na 
poleon. 

"The  Napoleon  was  a  ninety- ton  Baltimore  clipper, 
a  model  for  speed  and  symmetry.  She  came  out  from 
Cuba,  in  ballast,  as  a  new  craft,  and  made  two  suc 
cessful  trips  before,  at  Don  Pedro's  request,  I  supplied 
the  place  of  mate  and  surgeon  in  her  last  voyage, 
when  she  sailed  freighted  with  two  hundred  and  fifty 
full-grown  men  and  one  hundred  picked  boys  and  girls 
for  the  Cuban  market.  By  actual  calculation  the 
average  cost  per  head  of  the  three  hundred  and  fifty 
was  $16,  and  in  Havana  the  market  average  was 
$360,  yielding  a  profit  for  the  whole,  if  safely  de 
livered,  at  $360  a  head,  of  $120,400  on  the  slaves. 
Subtracting  $20,000  from  this,  the  average  cost  of 
the  clipper's  round  trip,  including  commissions,  and 
her  earnings  would  be  $100,000  in  round  numbers. 
Such  were  the  enormous  profits  of  the  slave-trade  in 
1835." 

An  official  report  on  the  first  voyage  of  the  beautiful 
Baltimore  clipper  ship  Venus  [See  House  Ex.  Doc.  115, 
26th  Cong.  2d  Sess.]  says : 

"With  regard  to  the  ship  Venus,  otherwise  the  Du- 
quesa  de  Braganza,  we  should  state  that  the  original 


38  THE  AMERICAN  SLAVE-TRADE 

cost,  we  understand,  was  30,000  dollars  ;  and  that  the 
fitting  out,  and  expenses  of  every  description  for  the 
voyage,  including  the  value  of  the  return  cargo,  was 
estimated  at  $60,000  more.  The  number  of  negroes 
brought  back,  as  has  been  before  stated,  was  860  ;  and 
they  are  said  to  have  been  sold  at  340  dollars  per  head, 
producing  the  sum  of  nearly  300,000  dollars  ;  of  which 
therefore  two- thirds  was  net  profit."  That  was  in 
1838-39. 

As  far  back  as  1827,  the  captain  of  a  small  slave* 
would  receive  $2,000  for  a  round  trip  requiring  six 
months'  time,  while  the  mate  got  $1,000.  To  fully  ap 
preciate  how  much  money  that  was  to  a  ship's  officers 
one  has  to  remember  that  even  now  there  are  plenty  of 
captains  of  schooners  and  barks  of  a  thousand  tons 
capacity  who  receive  but  $75  or  $80  a  month,  although 
wages  all  around  are  fifty  per  cent,  higher,  and  even 
more.  The  captains  of  transatlantic  liners  to-day 
receive  from  $2,000  to  $3,000  a  year,  whereas  the 
captain  of  a  little  ninety-ton  slaver  got  $2,000  in  six 
months.  The  liner  that  cost,  say,  a  million  dollars 
will  carry  first-class  passengers  in  luxurious  state 
rooms  and  furnish  abundant  meals  for  from  $100  to 
$150  for  the  passage,  and  $125  is  a  fair  average  price 
for  superb  accommodations  on  the  most  expensive  ves 
sel.  The  average  profit  on  a  slave  after  the  year  1825 
was  not  less  than  $250,  or  twice  the  price  of  a  first- 
class  passage  on  a  ship  costing  a  million.  To  make 
the  contrast  absolutely  fair  we  should  say  that  the 
slaver  who  received  $340  per  head,  and  paid  but  $20 
in  Africa  received  $320  for  transporting  the  slave  to 
Cuba.  His  net  profit  was  reduced  to,  say,  $250  by 
the  expenses  of  the  voyage,  just  as  the  steam  liner's 


THE    SLAVER'S     PROFIT  89 

net  profit  may  be  reduced  to  $25  by  the  expenses  of 
the  voyage. 

However,  to  be  liberal,  there  was  the  sum  of  $250 
net,  at  least,  which  the  slaver  could  get  for  transport 
ing  a  negro  from  Africa  to  Cuba.  If  the  owners  of 
steamships  costing  a  million  can  afford  to  carry  first- 
class  passengers  in  luxury  for  $125,  the  slaver  might 
have  carried  negroes  in  cleanliness  and  perfect  com 
fort,  and  still  have  realized  profits  of  from  fifty  to  one 
hundred  per  centum  every  voyage,  from  the  invest 
ment.  It  is  plain  that  the  horrors  of  the  Middle  Pas 
sage  were  not  necessarily  incident  to  the  transportation 
of  slaves  from  Africa  to  the  West  Indies. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

SLAVER  LEGISLATION  IN  THE  AMERICAN  COLONIES 

The  Colonies  often  Levied  Taxes  on  Imported  Slaves,  and  these 
Duties  were  in  Rare  Cases  Prohibitive,  but  this  Legislation 
was  always  Based  on  Commercial  Considerations  Only,  or 
else  a  Fear  of  Negro  Insurrections — Great  Britain  Never 
Forced  the  Slave-trade  on  Them  Against  Their  Virtuous 
Protest — Georgia's  Interesting  Slave  History. 

IF  there  is  any  chapter  in  our  history  that  is  likely 
to  make  a  patriotic  student  an  utter  pessimist,  it  is  the 
chapter  relating  to  American  slave  legislation.  No 
other  chapter  is  so  disheartening  ;  none  can  excite  such 
indignation  and  contempt.  But  if  we  consider  that  at 
last,  after  two  hundred  and  forty-two  years  of  oppres 
sion  and  robbery,  a  time  came  when  we  did,  by  legal 
enactment,  recognize  that  a  negro  man  was  entitled  at 
least  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness,  we 
shall  not  be  without  hope  that  a  time  may  yet  come 
when  we  shall  fully  understand  and  act  upon  the  Di 
vine  command,  "  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thy 
self." 

That  the  British  Government,  in  the  interest  of  Brit 
ish  shipping,  did,  in  the  eighteenth  century,  try  to  en 
courage  the  slave-trade  is  abundantly  proved  by  many 
other  facts  than  the  appropriations,  amounting  to 
£90,000,  which  Parliament  granted,  between  1729  and 
1750,  for  building,  repairing,  and  supporting  forts  and 

90 


SLAVEK  LEGISLATION    IN    AMERICAN    COLONIES      91 

slave-pens  on  the  coast  of  Africa.  But  whether  the 
American  colonies  virtuously  struggled  to  resist  and 
suppress  the  slave- traffic  during  those  years  is  another 
matter  entirely. 

To  begin  with  the  facts  in  the  matter,  we  find  that  in 
New  York  in  1709  a  tariff  duty  of  £3  per  head  was  laid 
on  all  negroes  imported  from  any  other  place  than  an 
African  port,  and  this  is  said  to  have  been  prohibitive. 

In  connection  with  this  take  the  letter  of  the  Earl  of 
Bellemont  to  the  Lords  of  Trade  : 

"  I  should  advise  the  sending  for  negroes  to  Guinea, 
which  I  understand  are  bought  there  and  brought 
hither,  all  charges  whatever  being  bourne,  for  £10  a 
piece,  New  York  money.  .  .  .  If  it  were  practical 
for  the  King  to  be  the  merchant  and  that  the  whole 
management  of  this  undertaking  were  upon  his  ac 
count,  were  it  so,  there  would  be  profit  of  at  least  £50 
per  cent."  (Vol.  IV.  Col.  Doc.) 

The  tax  was  laid  to  promote  a  direct  trade.  In  1716 
a  tariff  then  imposed  was  explained  by  Governor 
Hunter.  (Vol.  V.,  N.  Y.  Col.  Doc.) 

"The  duties  laid  on  negroes  from  ye  other  colonies 
are  intended  to  encourage  their  own  shipping  and  dis 
courage  their  importing  of  refuse  and  sickly  negroes 
here  from  other  colonies,  which  they  commonly  do." 

The  fact  is  that  while  New  York  State  eventually 
abolished  slavery,  it  never  put  so  much  as  a  spray  of 
sea- weed  under  the  bows  of  slave-ships  owned  by  her 
citizens. 

In  Rhode  Island,  as  early  as  1708,  a  tax  of  £3  per 
head  was  laid  on  all  negroes  imported.  This  tax  has 
been  called  a  restraint  on  the  trade  and  it  has  been 
quoted  to  show  that  the  Rhode  Islanders  even  thus 


92  THE  AMERICAN  SLAVE-TRADE 

early  showed  a  glimmering  sense  of  the  moral  char 
acter  of  the  slave-trade.  The  fact  is  the  tax  was  laid 
to  enable  the  Colonial  Government  to  obtain  a  share 
of  the  profits  of  the  trade,  and  Newport  streets  were 
first  paved  out  of  the  proceeds  of  that  tax. 

Moore,  in  his  "  Slavery  in  Massachusetts,"  points  out 
that  in  1701  the  representatives  from  Boston  were 
"  desired  [by  the  voters]  to  promote  the  encouraging 
the  bringing  of  white  servants,  and  to  put  a  period  to 
negroes  being  slaves."  That  looks  like  a  real  desire 
to  abolish  slavery,  even  though  no  legislation  followed 
on  the  desire  ;  but  the  truth  is,  the  Boston  voters  were 
animated  solely  by  business  principles,  as  shall  be 
pointed  out  in  connection  with  similar  legislation  in 
New  Jersey. 

Moreover  "  the  law  of  1703  (two  years  later)  chapter 
2,  was  in  restraint  of  the  'Manumission,  Discharge 
or  Setting  free '  of  '  Molatto  or  Negro  slaves.' '  The 
close-fisted  slave-owners  had  begun  "to  manumit 
aged  or  infirm  slaves,  to  relieve  the  master  from  the 
charge  of  supporting  them." 

In  1705  Massachusetts  again  enacted  slaver  laws. 
One  clause  of  the  bill  imposed  a  tax  of  £4  on  each 
slave  imported.  This  looks  something  like  a  restraint 
of  the  trade,  but  a  further  examination  of  the  act 
shows  that  it  was  ufor  the  Better  Preventing  of  a 
spurious  or  mixt  Issue."  It  is  shocking  to  learn  that 
the  young  men  of  Puritan  blood  were  so  fond  of  the 
black  Briseises.  Another  clause  of  the  bill  provided 
for  an  entire  rebate  of  the  tax  if  the  slaves  were 
exported  after  having  been  entered  at  the  custom 
house.  The  act  was  really  designed  to  enable  the 
colony  to  share  in  the  profits  of  the  slave-trade,  and 


SLAVER  LEGISLATION    IN    AMERICAN    COLONIES      93 

to  encourage  slavers  in  making  Boston  a  clearing 
house,  so  to  speak,  for  the  slave-trade  of  the  whole 
continent. 

Du  Bois  notes  that  the  middle  colony  and  southern 
ports  allowed  a  rebate  of  not  more  than  one-half  the 
duty  of  reshipment  of  slaves ;  but  the  student  must 
not  fail  to  consider  this  in  its  proper  light.  It  was  not 
a  question  of  morals — of  a  desire  to  suppress  the  slave- 
trade.  The  middle  and  southern  ports  were  merely 
less  anxious  to  promote  sea-traffic — they  were  less 
under  the  influence  of  ship-owners. 

It  appears  that  New  Jersey  really  strove  to  prohibit 
the  trade  in  1713,  by  a  duty  of  £10.  This  law  looks 
quite  a  little  like  an  honest  attempt  to  extirpate  the 
traffic.  It  certainly  was  not  the  expression  of  a  desire 
to  participate  in  the  profits,  or  to  promote  shipping, 
or  to  interfere  with  the  trade  of  other  colonies.  But 
on  looking  at  the  real  reason  we  find  (Vol.  IV.  New 
Jersey  Archives)  that  it  was  "  calculated  to  Encour 
age  the  Importation  of  white  Servants  for  the  better 
Peopeling  that  Country." 

It  was  seen  clearly  in  New  Jersey,  and  also  in  other 
colonies  (though  dimly  in  some  of  them)  that  white 
servants  of  a  character  to  become  enterprising  citizens, 
when  their  term  of  slavery  was  ended,  were  likely  to 
be  of  more  benefit  to  a  community  with  a  climate  like 
that  of  any  of  the  northern  colonies  than  African 
slaves  would  be.  The  negro  was  to  be  a  slave  for  life 
— a  mere  laborer  whose  value  was  as  that  of  a  horse. 
But  a  large  proportion  of  the  white  slaves  became,  at 
last,  business  men  who  would  develop  the  natural 
resources  of  the  country,  and  build  the  nation. 

And  all  this  is  to  say,  with  emphasis,  that  the  pro- 


94  THE   AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

hibitive  legislation  of  New  Jersey,  as  of  some  other 
communities,  was  based  strictly  on  business  considera 
tions.  The  only  question  really  was,  Which  in  the 
end  will  pay  best— white  or  black  servants  ? 

In  Pennsylvania  the  first  law  to  impose  a  prohibitive 
tax  was  passed  in  1712,  and  the  bill  itself  sets  forth 
the  object  in  view.  It  began:  "Whereas  divers 
Plots  and  Insurrections  have  frequently  happened, 
not  only  in  the  Islands,  but  on  the  Mainland  of  Amer 
ica,  by  Negroes,  which  have  been  carried  on  so  far 
that  several  of  the  inhabitants  have  been  barbarously 
Murthered,  an  Instance  whereof  we  have  lately  had  in 
our  Neighboring  Colony  of  New  York,"  etc.  The  act 
ended  by  imposing  a  duty  of  £20. 

For  fear  the  slaves  whom  they  dominated  might  rise 
to  secure  liberty  and  avenge  uncounted  injuries,  the 
people  of  Pennsylvania  decided  that  no  more  slaves 
should  come  in.  It  was  the  sheer  cowardice  of  con 
scious  tyrants  that  animated  those  Pennsylvania  legis 
lators. 

A  similar  state  of  affairs  was  developed  in  South 
Carolina  very  early — in  1698 — when  it  was  said  that 
"  the  great  number  of  negroes  which  of  late  have  been 
imported  into  this  collony  may  endanger  the  safety 
thereof,"  and  a  special  law  to  encourage  the  importa 
tion  of  white  servants  was  passed.  A  few  years  later, 
when  the  King  of  Spain  and  the  Queen  of  England 
went  into  the  slave-trade  in  partnership,  heavy  duties 
were  laid  on  imported  negroes,  because  "the  number 
of  Negroes  do  extremely  increase,"  and  "the  safety 
of  the  said  Province  is  greatly  endangered."  In  1717 
a  duty  of  £40  currenc}^  was  laid,  and  this  cut  down 
importations  so  much  that  a  duty  of  £10  was  substi- 


SLAVER   LEGISLATION    IN    AMERICAN    COLONIES      95 

tuted  for  all  others  in  1719.  In  1734  there  were  22,000 
slaves  to  less  than  8,000  whites  in  South  Carolina,  and 
this  state  of  affairs  was  exceedingly  alarming  to  the 
whites,  especially  as  insurrections  had  been  attempted. 

An  insurrection  at  Stono  under  a  negro  called  Cato 
led  to  a  prohibitive  duty  of  £100  laid  for  a  time  on 
imported  negroes.  Again  in  1760  the  importation  was 
prohibited  through  fear. 

Georgia  was  first  established  by  charitable  English 
men  as  a  refuge  for  a  lot  of  people  who  were  im 
prisoned  for  debt  —  in  trouble  through  misfortune 
only.  The  charter  was  granted  June  9,  1732.  It  was 
to  be  "a  silk,  wine,  oil  and  drug  growing  colony." 
And  negro  slavery  was  absolutely  prohibited. 

T.  Rundle,  one  of  the  trustees  of  the  corporation,  in 
a  sermon  preached  at  St.  George's,  February  17,  1733, 
said:  "Let  avarice  defend  it  as  it  will,  there  is  an 
honest  reluctance  in  humanity  against  buying  and 
selling,  and  regarding-  those  of  our  own  species  as 
our  wealth  and  possessions."  To  this  Oglethorpe 
himself,  the  colony's  chief  promoter,  added  that  the 
slave-trade  was  "  against  the  gospel  as  well  as  the 
fundamental  law  of  England,"  and  that  "we  refused 
as  Trustees  to  make  a  law  permitting  such  a  horrid 
crime." 

In  view  of  the  regulations  covering  rum  and  negro 
slaves,  Du  Bois,  the  distinguished  historian  of  the 
negro  race,  is  moved  to  say  that  "in  Georgia  we  have 
an  example  of  a  community  whose  philanthropic 
founders  sought  to  impose  upon  it  a  code  of  morals 
higher  than  the  colonists  wished." 

The  fact  is,  however,  that  Oglethorpe  was  Deputy 
Governor  of  the  Royal  African  Company,  the  company 


96  THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

chartered  to  monopolize  the  slave-trade  under  the 
famous  Assiento  contract  with  Spain — the  company 
which  agreed  to  deliver  4,800  slaves  per  year,  or  144,000 
slaves  in  all,  in  the  Spanish  colonies  alone,  during  the 
course  of  thirty  years,  and  which  did  deliver  many 
more  than  4,800  slaves  into  the  American  colonies  in 
the  very  year  when  Oglethorpe  made  a  speech  on  the 
slave-trade  declaring  it  a  "  horrid  crime."  He  also 
owned  a  plantation  near  Parachucla,  South  Carolina, 
forty  miles  north  of  the  Savannah  River,  that  was 
worked  by  slaves.  Oglethorpe  proclaimed  (as  many 
an  American  did  after  him)  that  the  slave-trade  was 
"horrid,"  but  he  was  one  of  the  most  active  partici 
pants  in  it  known  to  his  age.  The  conclusion  reached 
by  Stevens  in  his  "  History  of  Georgia"  is  irresistible. 
"  It  was  policy  and  not  philanthropy  which  prohibited 
slavery"  in  the  settlement  of  Georgia.  The  policy 
was  the  desire  to  place  a  buffer — perhaps  one  should 
rather  say  a  sentinel  troop  —  between  the  Spanish 
forces  of  Florida  and  the  English  colony  of  Carolina. 
The  Carolina  people  felt  that  their  slaves  were  an 
element  of  great  weakness  should  the  Spanish  come 
as  invaders.  A  colony  of  white  men  only  would  serve 
as  an  outpost  that  the  Spaniards  would  fear  and 
respect. 

But  Georgia  did  not  prosper  as  a  settlement  of 
whites  only,  and  slaves  were,  at  last,  introduced,  at 
the  urgent  demand  of  the  colonists. 

To  omit  further  details  of  colonial  policy  it  may  be 
said  generally  that,  with  the  exception  of  Georgia, 
every  colony  did  at  one  time  and  another  impose 
taxes  on  imported  negro  slaves,  and  that  in  some 
cases  the  so-called  restraint  amounted  to  prohibition. 


HE  APPLIED  THE  LASH  NOT  ONLY  TO  MAKE  THEM   EAT  BUT  TO  MAKE  THEM   SING. 

See  page  78. 


SLAVER  LEGISLATION   IN   AMERICAN    COLONIES      97 

But  with  this  admission  it  must  be  declared  that  every 
such  tax  was  laid  either  through  greed  (i.e.,  for  the 
sake  of  giving  the  State  a  share  of  the  profits)  or 
through  the  idea  that  from  a  business  point  of  view 
white  servants  would  develop  the  country  more  rapid 
ly  ;  or  through  a  mean  and  degrading  fear  of  the 
blacks.  Not  one  act  passed  by  a  colonial  legislature 
showed  any  appreciation  of  the  intrinsic  evil  in  the 
trade  or  tended  to  extirpate  it  from  the  seas — not  one. 
It  might  as  well  be  asserted  that  our  present  tariff  on 
imported  woollen  goods  shows  that  we  abhor  shep 
herds  and  desire  to  extirpate  the  world's  traffic  in 
wool,  as  to  assert  that  the  colonial  tariffs  on  the  slave- 
trade  were  honest  efforts  to  rid  the  world  of  a  horrid 
traffic.  The  world  was  not  at  that  time  sufficiently 
civilized  to  even  discuss  the  rights  of  slaves.  It  was 
not  until  1772  that  Granville  Sharp,  the  lone  aboli 
tionist  of  England,  got  one  lone  question  regarding  one 
right  of  one  lone  slave  heard  and  decided  in  an  Eng 
lish  court.  The  assertion  that  the  British  forced  the 
traffic  on  unwilling  colonists  in  America  is  a  puling 
whine. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  EARLY  WORK  FOR  EXTIRPATION 

The  Words  and  Deeds  of  the  Fanatics — The  Quakers — Slaves 
that  were  Freed  by  Baptism— Granville  Sharp  as  a  Liber 
ator—A  Fanatic's  Political  Creed  Plainly  Stated— Wide 
spread  Influence  of  the  Somerset  Case  when  the  Right  Pre 
vailed  in  England — A  Policy  that  would  not  Square  Well 
with  a  Practical  Business  Sense  of  Things — The  American 
Declaration  of  Independence  and  the  Black  Men. 

WHEN  Sir  John  Hawkins,  flushed  with  success,  was 
telling  Good  Queen  Bess  how  he  had  taken,  "  partly  by 
the  sword  and  partly  by  other  means"  three  hundred 
negroes  from  the  coast  of  Guinea  to  the  far  side  of  the 
Atlantic  and  sold  them  there  with  profit,  the  heart  of 
the  Queen  was  touched  and  she  saw,  back  of  the  "  great 
profit,"  the  picture  of  the  negroes  when  they  were 
torn  from  their  homes  by  force,  and  she  said  the  deed 
"was  detestable."  For  one  brief  moment  she  saw 
clear-eyed,  and  a  writer  recorded  her  words  where 
they  were  most  likely  to  find  readers  among  her 
people — in  a  naval  history. 

The  importance  of  the  fact  that  her  words  were 
printed  is  to  be  emphasized.  The  reader  will  recall 
what  Carlyle  says  of  the  voiceless  millions,  whose  suf 
ferings  made  the  French  revolution  possible,  in  contrast 
with  the  screaming  outcries  of  the  few  who  were  un- 

98 


THE  EARLY  WORK  FOR  EXTIRPATION      99 

justly  treated  therein  while  those  millions  held  power. 
When  the  protest  of  Elizabeth  was  printed,  the  voice 
less  negro  slave  was  heard. 

In  like  fashion  the  slave  was  heard  again  when 
Morgan  Godwyn,  a  clergyman  employed  by  the  slave- 
holding  missionary  society  of  England,  wrote  "The 
Negroes'  and  Indians'  Advocate."  Then  Richard 
Baxter  wrote  a  "Christian  Directory,"  wherein  he 
gives  "advice  to  those  masters  in  foreign  plantations 
who  have  negroes  and  other  slaves." 

They  were  sowing  good  seed — a  sort  of  winter- 
wheat  crop,  one  may  say.  The  Pennsylvania  Quakers 
took  up  the  work  and  on  "the  13th  day  of  the  8th 
month,  1693,"  at  "our  Monthly  Meeting  in  Phila 
delphia,"  prepared  an  "Exhortation  and  Caution  to 
Friends  Concerning  Buying  or  Keeping  of  Negroes." 

They  were  opposed  to  "keeping  negroes  for  Term 
of  Life"  for  several  reasons  clearly  stated,  the 
"fifthly"  of  which  shall  be  quoted :  "  Because  slaves 
and  souls  of  men  are  some  of  the  Merchandize  of 
Babylon,  by  which  the  Merchants  of  the  Earth  are 
made  Rich." 

In  the  valuable  and  interesting  book  called  "The 
Workers"  by  Walter  A.  Wyckoff,  is  a  graphic  de 
scription  of  the  effect,  as  he  observed  it,  of  a  sermon 
upon  a  wealthy  congregation  in  a  Chicago  church 
which  he  attended  that  he  might  see  how  a  laborer 
would  be  received  among  the  wealthy.  So  earnest 
was  the  preacher,  so  intent  were  the  audience,  that  (to 
quote  the  author) ' '  it  was  as  though  distress  had  ceased 
to  be  for  them  the  visible  sufferings  of  the  poor,  and 
had  grown,  through  the  deepening  sense  of  brother 
hood,  into  an  anguish  of  their  own,  which  must  find 


100  THE  AMERICAN  SLAVE-TRADE 

healing  in  forms  of  effective  helpfulness.  Very  clearly 
dawned  the  conviction  that,  if  one  could  but  point  out 
to  the  members  of  this  waiting  company  some  '  way,' 
1  something  to  do,  which  would  square  well  witli  their 
practical  business  sense  of  things,  instant  and  un 
measured  would  be  their  response.' ' 

The  quotation  emphasizes  the  work  of  the  Quakers 
of  1693,  for  they  did  not  ask  nor  did  they  so  much  as 
think  of  what  would  square  with  practical  business 
sense.  There  is  not  a  word  in  their  manifesto,  nor  was 
there  a  thought  in  the  heart  of  one  of  them,  about  the 
"Impolicy  of  the  Slave-trade."  And  they  were  fol 
lowed  by  many  others  who  refused  to  entertain  busi 
ness  considerations,  but  asked  solely  what  was  right. 

The  story  of  the  Boston  slaver,  who,  in  1645,  robbed 
an  African  village  by  force  of  arms  of  its  inhabitants, 
was  told  in  open  court  because  the  slaver  captain  quar 
relled  with  the  ship's  owners.  On  hearing  it,  one  of  the 
magistrates,  Richard  Saltonstall,  declared  that  the 
master  and  his  mate  had  been  guilty  of  murder,  man- 
stealing,  and  Sabbath-breaking,  all  crimes  "  capital 
by  tJie  law  of  God"  This  was  the  first  time  that  a 
man  was  accused  in  open  court,  on  United  States  soil, 
of  a  capital  offence  because  he  had  stolen  negroes  in 
Africa.  It  was  the  first  of  the  long  series  of  slave- 
trials  wherein  the  insolent  slaver  was  let  go  on  techni 
calities,  the  Courts  deciding  that  they  had  no  jurisdic 
tion  over  crimes  committed  by  citizens  of  the  colony 
when  on  the  coast  of  Africa. 

The  next  court  case  worth  mention  here  came  up 
in  1767.  In  1727  the  British  planters  of  the  West 
Indies  who  came  to  England  bringing  slaves  for 
personal  attendants  began  to  have  trouble  through 


THE    EARLY    WORK    FOR    EXTIRPATION  101 

the  efforts  of  the  slaves  to  escape  service.  The  ne 
groes,  seeing  the  relative  freedom  and  comfort  of  the 
white  servants  of  England,  ran  away.  For  a  time  the 
masters  had  merely  to  find  the  negroes  to  recover  them, 
but  eventually  it  was  noised  among  the  negroes  that, 
under  the  laws  of  England,  every  human  being  who 
had  been  baptized  in  the  Established  Church  was  free. 
Thereat  every  negro  made  haste  to  get  baptized. 

The  law  was  plain  in  letter  and  spirit,  but  the  Crown 
Attorney  and  the  Solicitor-General,  at  the  request  of 
certain  slave- owners,  wrote  an  opinion  saying  that  bap 
tism  of  a  slave  could  not  divest  the  slave-owner  of  any 
property  right.  That  opinion  served  as  law  for  nearly 
forty  years. 

But  in  1765  a  Barbadoes  planter  named  David  Lisle 
came  to  London  bringing  a  negro  slave  named  Jona 
than  Strong  with  him,  and  took  lodgings  in  Wapping. 
Lisle  abused  Strong  in  shocking  fashion  and  then 
turned  him  into  the  street,  as  he  would  have  turned  a 
worthless  dog,  to  die. 

At  that  time  a  Dr.  William  Sharp  lived  in  Wap 
ping,  and  he  gave  much  time  to  charity.  In  some  way 
the  negro  Strong  found  his  way  to  Sharp's  office. 
Sharp  heard  his  story  and  sent  him  to  a  hospital, 
where  he  was  cured.  Now,  Dr.  Sharp  had  a  brother, 
one  Grariville  Sharp,  "born  at  Durham,  England. 
November  10,  1735.  His  early  education  was  limited. 
In  1750  he  was  apprenticed  to  a  Friend — afterward  to 
an  Independent — and  subsequently  to  a  Romanist." 
The  story  of  the  negro  Strong  appealed  to  Gfranville, 
who  after  he  left  the  hospital  obtained  a  situation  for 
him  where  all  went  well  with  him  until  one  day  in  1767 
his  old  master  saw  him,  and  at  once  decided  to  take 


102  THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

possession  of  him  again.  To  this  end  he  had  the  slave 
kidnapped,  and  then  sold  him  to  one  John  Kerr  for 
£30. 

Although  held  in  prison,  Strong  found  means  to  send 
for  friends,  and  Granville  Sharp  went  to  the  Lord 
Mayor,  Sir  Robert  Kite,  uand  entreated  him  to  send 
for  Strong,  and  to  hear  his  case." 

Accordingly  the  case  was  heard,  and  Strong  was 
discharged  from  custody  on  the  ground  that  he  had 
been  kidnapped — that  is,  really,  on  a  technical  plea. 
Sharp  freed  Strong,  but  this  case  established  no  prin 
ciple  worth  mention,  and  the  story  is  told  chiefly  be 
cause  the  work  of  Sharp  in  the  case  was  his  first  effort 
in  behalf  of  the  negro  race,  and  great  things  were  to 
follow  through  his  later  efforts. 

Straightway  Sharp  found  his  hands  full  of  the  work 
of  liberating  slaves.  So  let  us  look  his  work  in  the 
face.  It  was  nothing  more  nor  less  than  an  attack 
on  property  legally  obtained  and  legally  held.  It  was 
a  work  that  would  not  "  square  with  the  business 
sense  "  of  anybody.  It  is,  therefore,  but  justice  to  the 
man  to  let  him  say  here  what  the  faith  was  that 
moved  him  to  this  extraordinary  career.  In  a  letter 
to  Lord  Carysport  he  said  : 

"  This  is  the  compendium  or  sum  total  of  all  my  poli 
tics,  so  that  I  include  them  in  a  very  small  compass. 
I  am  thoroughly  convinced  that  Right  ought  to  be 
adopted  and  maintained,  on  all  occasions,  without 
regard  to  consequences  either  probable  or  possible." 

This  was  the  first  statement  made  by  an  abolitionist 
of  what  the  abolitionists  called  "  the  higher  law." 

In  November,  1769,  Charles  Stewart,  a  Virginia 
planter,  brought  a  slave  named  James  Somerset  to 


THE    EAKLY    WORK    FOR    EXTIRPATION  1Q3 

England.  Somerset  ran  away ;  was  recaptured,  and 
was  placed  on  the  ship  Mary  and  Ann  to  be  carried 
to  Jamaica  and  sold.  On  learning  this  fact  Sharp 
took  the  negro  from  the  ship  on  the  usual  writ,  and 
it  was  agreed  that  the  case  should  turn  on  the  broad 
question  u  Whether  an  African  slave  coming  into 
England  becomes  free." 

That  was  a  trial  to  stir  the  kingdom,  for  it  was  an 
open  attack  not  alone  on  the  planters  of  distant  col 
onies,  but  on  the  whole  foreign  commerce  of  the  na 
tion  that  had  been  developed,  nurtured,  improved, 
and  brought  to  the  leading  place  on  the  sea  through 
the  profits  of  the  slave-trade.  Worse  yet,  from  a 
business  point  of  view,  it  was  an  attack  upon  many 
interests  ashore.  The  distilleries  that  made  rum,  the 
factories  that  made  ropes,  sails,  and  other  ship  fit 
tings,  even  the  whole  industry  of  Manchester  that 
turned  out  cloths  for  the  African  trade  —  all  these 
were  interested  in  the  success  of  the  slavers. 

The  wealth  of  the  nation  and  the  power  of  society 
gathered  on  one  side.  On  the  other  side  stood  a  tim 
orous  negro  slave  and  Granville  Sharp.  Lord  Mans 
field  in  his  robes  presided. 

For  six  months — from  January  to  June,  1772,  inclu 
sive — blind  Justice  held  the  scales  aloft  in  that  court 
while  learned  counsel  heaped  this  side  and  that  with 
lore  and  statute  bald,  and  strove  with  fierce  as  well  as 
pleading  breath  to  sway  the  poised  beam.  And  then 
he  who  stood  for  the  oppressed,  rising  above  the  ob 
scuring,  tape-bound  "  chaos  of  formulas,"  asked  in  a 
voice  that  was  heard  in  spite  of  clamor : 

"  Shall  the  Right  prevail  in  England  ? " 

When  those  words  were  heard  a  hush  fell  upon  all 


104:  THE  AMERICAN  SLAVE-TRADE 

in  that  court,  as  if  God  had  spoken.  And  then  Jus 
tice  raised  her  sword,  and,  while  the  timorous  slave 
and  the  arrogant  master  listened,  the  justice  who  was 
appointed  to  speak  said  : 

"Immemorial  usage  preserves  the  memory  of  pos 
itive  law  long  after  all  traces  of  the  occasion,  reason, 
authority,  and  time  of  its  introduction  are  lost ;  and 
in  a  case  so  odious  as  that  of  the  condition  of  slaves, 
must  be  taken  strictly  (tracing  the  subject  to  natural 
principles,  the  claim  of  slavery  never  can  be  sup 
ported).  The  power  claimed  by  this  return  never  was 
in  use  here.  We  cannot  say  the  cause  set  forth  by 
this  return  is  allowed  or  approved  of  by  the  laws  of 
this  kingdom,  and  therefore  the  man  must  be  dis 
charged." 

That  was  said  on  Monday,  June  22,  1772.  From 
that  day  slave-traders  lost  England  as  a  landing-place 
— lost  her  waters  even  as  ports  of  call  while  their 
human  cargoes  were  on  board.  The  slave-trade  had 
been  actually  restricted  regardless  of  business  consid 
erations. 

Not  only  did  the  case  of  Somerset  serve  to  restrict 
the  territory  of  the  slave-traders ;  the  stir  it  created 
in  public  talk  was  of  tremendous  effect.  For  it 
should  be  recalled  that  under  the  laws  of  England 
and  of  the  colonies  in  those  days  it  was  libellous  to 
tell  the  truth  in  public  print  about  the  ill-treatment  a 
slave  might  receive  from  his  master,  unless,  indeed, 
the  story  of  it  were  first  told  in  open  court  during  a 
trial  involving  the  matter.  The  cases  which  Gran- 
ville  Sharp  brought  into  court  enabled  the  masses  of 
the  English-speaking  people  who  held  no  slaves  to 
learn  lawfully  how  slaves  were  treated  by  slave-own- 


THE    EAKLY    WORK    FOB    EXTIRPATION          105 

ers,  and  this  set  them  to  considering  whether  or  not 
slave-owning  was  right. 

Granville  Sharp,  in  fighting  the  battle  of  an  unfort 
unate  negro,  prepared  the  way  in  England  for  the 
discussion  of  slavery  and  the  slave-trade  on  their 
merits.  The  voiceless  negro  through  him  appealed  to 
the  justice  and  humanity  of  the  dominant  race. 

In  America  no  such  appeal  as  that  was  heard,  but  a 
demand  was  made  there  for  universal  liberty,  and  it 
was  heard  around  the  world  because  emphasized  by 
the  thunder  of  cannon. 

When  the  colonists  united  to  oppose  British  op 
pression,  the  talk  about  slavery  and  slaves,  which 
had  reference  to  their  own  condition,  turned  their 
thoughts  to  the  unfortunate  negro  slaves,  and  on 
Thursday,  October  20,  1774,  they  signed  an  agree 
ment  that  they  would  unot  purchase  any  slave  im 
ported  after  the  first  day  of  December  next ;  after 
which  time  we  will  wholly  discontinue  the  slave-trade, 
and  will  neither  be  concerned  in  it  ourselves,  nor  will 
we  hire  our  vessels,  nor  sell  our  commodities  or  manu 
factures  to  those  who  are  concerned  in  it." 


CHAPTER  X 

THE   SLAVERS   OUTLAWED 

British  Abolitionists  and  Their  Work — After  a  Crusade  of  only 
Twenty  Years,  They  Outlawed  a  Trade  that,  from  a  Busi 
ness  Point  of  View,  had  been  the  most  Profitable  in  the 
United  Kingdom — The  Slave-trade  and  the  American 
Constitution — Inauguration  of  the  System  of  Compromises 
that  Led  to  the  Civil  War — Slave-trade  Legislation  of  the 
States— The  Act  of  March  2,  1807. 

ALTHOUGH  the  British  -  American  colonies,  from 
Massachusetts  to  Georgia,  had  become  the  United 
States  of  America  before  anything  was  done  through 
a  love  of  humanity  for  the  legal  abolition  of  the  traffic, 
it  is  necessary,  for  the  purposes  of  this  history,  to  con 
sider  the  progress  of  the  trade,  and  of  its  opponents, 
very  much  as  if  no  separation  had  taken  place  be 
tween  the  colonies  and  the  mother  country. 

Although  the  notable  decision  that  right  should 
prevail  in  England,  as  far  as  the  negro  Somerset  was 
concerned,  was  made  in  1772,  it  was  not  until  1787 
that  a  "  Society  for  the  Abolition  of  the  African  Slave- 
trade,"  was  formed  in  London.  However,  an  aboli 
tion  association,  or  committee  without  special  organi 
zation,  was  formed  as  early  as  1783.  The  immediate 
cause  of  its  formation  was  the  story  of  the  slaver 
Zong  already  related. 

The  first  meeting  of  the  committee  was  held  July  7, 

106 


THE    SLAVERS    OUTLAWED  107 

1783,  i  i  to  consider  what  steps  they  should  take  for  the 
relief  and  liberation  of  the  Negro  slaves  in  the  West 
Indies,  and  for  the  discouragement  of  the  Slave-trade 
on  the  coast  of  Africa."  The  result  of  the  agitation 
of  this  private  committee  was  the  formation  on  May 
22,  1787,  of  the  "  Society  for  the  Abolition  of  the 
African  Slave-trade,"  of  which  Granville  Sharp  was 
the  chairman,  and  Thomas  Clarkson  was,  next  to 
Sharp,  the  most  active  member.  In  Parliament  Will 
iam  Wilberforce  became  the  champion  of  the  society, 
chiefly  through  the  work  of  Clarkson.  Of  the  stand 
ing  of  the  supporters  of  the  trade  we  have  a  sufficient 
indication  in  the  fact  that  their  leader  was  His  Royal 
Highness  the  Duke  of  Clarence,  afterward  William  IV. 

How  the  society  held  meetings  and  published  ap 
peals,  and  how  the  slavers  were  forced  to  reply  but 
failed  to  show  convincing  arguments,  cannot  be  told 
here.  But  in  the  meantime  David  Hartley,  a  member 
of  Parliament  from  Hull,  made  a  motion  in  the  House, 
in  1776,  "That  the  slave-trade  is  contrary  to  the  laws 
of  God  and  the  rights  of  man."  In  support  of  this 
resolution  he  laid  on  the  table  of  tfre  House  some  of 
the  irons  used  in  securing  slaves  on  the  slave-ships. 
Sir  George  Saville  seconded  the  motion,  but,  of  course, 
it  failed  even  of  a  respectful  hearing. 

In  1783  an  effort  was  made  to  regulate  the  slave- 
trade,  and  it  was  thf  n  the  abolition  committee  began 
its  work.  The  bill  of  1783  failed,  but  because  of  the 
continually  increasing  agitation  by  the  abolitionists 
"the  King  by  an  order  in  council,  dated  February 
llth,  1788,  directed  that  a  committee  of  the  Privy 
Council  should  sit  as  a  board  of  trade  *  to  take  into 
their  consideration  the  present  state  of  the  African 


108  THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

trade,  particularly  as  far  as  related  to  the  practice  and 
manner  of  purchasing  or  obtaining  slaves  on  the  coast 
of  Africa,  and  the  importation  or  sale  thereof  "  in  the 
markets  of  the  West. 

On  May  9,  1788,  the  first  real  discussion  of  the  slave 
trade  was  heard  in  Parliament.  Mr.  Pitt  moved  a  reso 
lution  to  the  effect  that  a  full  discussion  of  the  trade 
be  had  in  the  next  session,  and  his  motion  prevailed. 

However,  Sir  William  Dolben  was  not  satisfied  to 
allow  the  session  to  close  without  doing  something  to 
relieve  the  slaves,  and  on  May  21, 1788,  asked  leave  to 
bring  in  a  bill  which  was  designed  "  only  to  limit  the 
number  of  persons  to  be  put  on  board  to  the  tonnage 
of  the  vessel  which  was  to  carry  them,  in  order  to 
prevent  them  from  being  crowded  too  closely  to 
gether  ;  to  secure  them  good  and  sufficient  provisions, 
and  to  take  cognizance  of  other  matters  which  related 
to  their  health  and  accommodation  ;  and  this  only  till 
Parliament  could  enter  into  the  general  merits  of  the 
question." 

The  slavers  at  once  protested  that  any  restriction 
would  ruin  the  trade,  but  meantime  Mr.  Pitt  had  sent 
Captain  Parry,  of  the  Royal  Navy,  to  Liverpool  to 
measure  the  slavers  there,  and  his  measurements 
showed  that  many  slavers  had  made  enormous  prof 
its  where  fewer  slaves  had  been  carried  than  the  con 
templated  bill  would  permit.  It  was  now  that  the 
people  learned  how  little  space  was  allowed  to  the 
slaves  crowded  into  the  slaver's  hold. 

On  June  17,  1788,  the  bill  passed  the  House  of  Com 
mons  by  a  vote  of  fifty-six  to  five.  By  its  terms 
slavers  were  to  be  allowed  to  carry  "  five  men  to  every 
three  tons  in  every  ship  under  one  hundred  and  fifty 


THE    SLAVERS    OUTLAWED  109 

tons  burthen  [according  to  the  custom-house  measure 
ment]  which  had  the  space  of  five  feet  between  the 
decks,  and  three  men  to  two  tons  in  every  vessel  be 
yond  one  hundred  and  fifty  tons  which  had  equal 
accommodation  in  point  of  height  between  the  decks." 

In  the  House  of  Lords,  in  spite  of  increased  oppo 
sition,  the  bill  was  amended  to  compel  the  carrying  of 
regularly  educated  surgeons  on  every  slaver  and  to 
give  bounties  to  slaver  captains  who  lost  no  more  than 
two  per  centum  of  the  slaves  during  the  Middle  Pas 
sage.  Finally,  on  Thursday,  July  10,  1788,  "the  first 
bill  that  ever  put  fetters  upon  that  barbarous  and  de 
structive  monster,  The  Slave-trade,"  was  sent  to  the 
King.  And  on  the  next  day  the  King  signed  it  and  it 
became  the  law  of  the  realm. 

The  Parliamentary  investigation  of  the  trade  fol 
lowed,  and  this  gave  the  public  a  full  knowledge  of 
its  horrors.  As  already  said,  these  horrors  grew  up 
only  because  of  the  blind  greed  of  the  slavers.  They 
might  perhaps,  by  giving  the  slaves  good  passenger 
accommodations,  have  long  delayed  the  fate  that  was 
at  hand.  But  blind  they  were.  On  April  27,  1792, 
Parliament  passed  a  resolution  by  a  vote  of  one  hun 
dred  and  fifty-one  to  one  hundred  and  thirty- two  for 
the  abolition  of  the  trade  in  1796.  In  the  House  of 
Lords  it  failed. 

In  1793  the  abolitionists  failed  in  the  Commons  as 
well  as  the  House  of  Lords.  In  1794  the  measure  was 
carried  in  the  Commons  but  lost  in  the  upper  house. 
Then  an  effort  was  made  to  keep  British  ships  from 
supplying  foreigners,  and  that  failed.  A  supreme 
effort  seems  to  have  been  made  in  1799,  but  that  failed 
also,  and  thereafter  nothing  of  importance  was  done  in 


THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

Parliament  until  1804,  which  was  fixed  upon  for  re 
newed  exertions.  A  bill  then  passed  the  Commons, 
but  was  thrown  out  by  the  Lords. 

However,  in  1805  "  an  order  in  council  prohibited  the 
importation  of  negroes  to  the  newly  conquered  colo 
nies  of  the  British  Crown."  Following  this  "Sir  A. 
Pigott,  the  Attorney-General,  as  an  officer  of  the 
Crown,  brought  in  a  bill  on  March  31,  1806,  the  first 
object  of  which  was  to  give  effect ' '  to  that  order.  The 
second  object  was  "to  prohibit  British  subjects  from 
being  engaged  in  importing  slaves  into  the  colonies  of 
any  foreign  power."  A  third  object  was  "to  prohibit 
British  subjects  and  British  capital  from  being  em 
ployed  in  carrying  on  a  slave-trade  in  foreign  ships," 
and  to  prevent  foreign  slavers  fitting  out  in  British 
ports.  This  bill,  "the  first  which  dismembered  this 
cruel  trade,"  passed  the  Commons  at  once,  and  the 
Lords  on  May  7th,  when  it  was  signed  by  the  King. 
The  triumph  of  Humanity  was  at  hand.  Parliament 
was  dissolved  in  November,  1806,  but  public  opinion 
had  so  far  changed  that  Roscoe,  a  noted  abolitionist, 
could  be  sent  from  Liverpool,  the  chief  slaver  port, 
to  the  new  Parliament  that  was  soon  convened.  It 
was  a  short-lived  Parliament,  but  a  bill  was  passed 
declaring  that  no  vessel  should  clear  out  for  slaves 
from  any  port  within  the  British  dominions  after  May 
1, 1807,  and  that  no  slave  should  be  landed  in  the  colo 
nies  after  March  1,  1808.  It  received  the  King's  signa 
ture  on  March  25,  1807.  The  fight  that  was  organized 
in  1787,  when  the  abolitionists  formed  their  society  for 
outlawing  the  trade,  was  won. 

This  was  not  the  first  time  that  the  trade  had  been 
prohibited  by  legal  enactment  in  an  English-speaking 


THE    SLAVEES    OUTLAWED 

state,  but  it  was  the  first  time  such  a  law  had  been 
made  from  humane  motives  only. 

To  consider  the  course  of  events  on  our  side  of  the 
Atlantic,  it  appears  that  "the  slave-trade  was  hardly 
touched  upon  in  the  Congress  of  the  Confederation." 
It  was  mentioned  only  in  connection  with  "  the  count 
ing  of  slaves  as  well  as  of  freemen  in  the  apportion 
ment  of  taxes;"  but  when  the  articles  were  finally 
adopted  a  law  was  enacted  by  which  fugitive  slaves, 
captured  on  the  sea,  or  on  the  beach  below  high-water 
mark,  were  to  be  free  unless  claimed  by  the  owner  ! 

From  the  adoption  of  the  articles  of  confederation 
until  it  was  found  that  those  articles  were  utterly  in 
adequate  to  their  proposed  object  of  holding  the  States 
together  as  a  nation,  the  slave-trade  was  not  an  object  of 
national  legislation.  But  when  the  convention  which 
adopted  the  present  Constitution  met,  the  subject 
of  the  slave-trade  had  a  fair  discussion,  though  it  must 
be  said  that  no  one  foresaw  the  extent  to  which  slavery 
was  to  grow.  On  the  contrary,  the  people  as  a  whole 
believed  that  it  was  a  dying  institution,  destined 
speedily  to  take  itself  from  the  nation. 

A  fair  examination  of  the  discussions  in  this  conven 
tion  shows  that  the  trade  would  have  been  prohibited 
in  the  Constitution  but  for  the  delegates  from  Georgia 
and  South  Carolina.  Delegates  from  Delaware,  Mary 
land,  and  Virginia  all  denounced  the  traffic,  even 
though  all  of  them  were  slave-holders.  Mason,  of  Vir 
ginia,  called  it  "infernal."  Georgia  was  ruled  by 
the  feeling  in  favor  of  slavery  that  had  come  down 
from  the  days  when  her  financial  interests  had  suf 
fered  for  want  of  slaves  under  the  proprietary  gov 
ernment. 


THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

In  South  Carolina  the  people  were  probably  in 
fluenced  chiefly  by  what  may  be  called  the  States' 
rights  doctrine.  They  did  not  then  need  imported 
slaves.  In  fact,  of  their  own  will,  they  prohibited 
the  traffic  temporarily  afterward.  It  was,  appar 
ently,  the  principle  of  surrendering  the  control  of 
the  trade  to  the  general  government  to  which  they 
objected. 

When  the  two  States  refused  to  join  the  confederacy, 
if  the  slave-trade  were  definitely  prohibited,  Roger 
Sherman,  of  Connecticut,  said  :  "  It  is  better  to  let  the 
Southern  States  import  slaves  than  to  part  with  those 
States." 

Herein  was  laid  the  foundation  of  the  national  legis 
lation  on  slavery  that  was  continued  until  it  culmi 
nated  in  the  civil  war.  It  is  certain  that  but  for  the 
compromises  then  inaugurated  we  should  have  had 
two  nations  instead  of  one  formed  from  the  original 
colonies. 

In  view  of  this  undisputed  fact,  and  in  view  of  the 
history  of  the  nation  since  that  date,  what  does  the 
reader  think  of  the  assertion  of  principle  made  by 
Granville  Sharp,  when  he  said : 

"Right  ought  to  be  adopted  and  maintained  on  all 
occasions,  without  regard  to  consequences,  either 
probable  or  possible  ?  " 

And  here  let  it  be  remembered  that  the  slave  ques 
tion  was  discussed  in  the  Constitutional  Convention 
chiefly  from  an  "economic  standpoint,"  and  that  the 
word  "  slave  "was  carefully  excluded  from  the  instru 
ment/or  the  sake  of  appearance. 

Not  to  dwell  too  long  on  a  topic  that  is  humili 
ating  to  every  patriot,  we  find  that  the  slave-trade 


THE    SLAVERS    OUTLAWED  113 

matter  was  disposed  of  as  follows  in  the  Constitu 
tion: 

ARTICLE  I.  SECTION  9.  The  Migration  or  Importation  of 
such.  Persons  as  any  of  the  States  now  existing  shall  think 
proper  to  admit  shall  not  be  prohibited  by  the  Congress 
prior  to  the  Year  one  thousand,  eight  hundred  and  eight,  but 
a  Tax  or  duty  may  be  imposed  on  such  Importation,  not  ex 
ceeding  ten  dollars  for  each  Person. 

The  opponents  of  the  trade  provided  for  a  date 
when  the  trade  might  be  prohibited,  and  they  saw 
that  a  negro  was  described  as  a  "  Person,"  not  as  an 
animal  or  real  estate.  This  was  something.  People 
had  been  found  to  deny  that  a  negro  was  a  man  and  a 
brother,  though  the  fact  that  he  was  a  half-brother  to 
some  of  the  leading  white  citizens  of  the  nation  was 
patent  enough. 

Meantime  the  States  were  able,  both  under  the  con 
federation  and  under  the  Constitution,  to  deal  with  the 
slave-trade  and  slavery  as  they  pleased.  The  State 
legislation  was  based  chiefly  on  economic  considera 
tions,  but  the  effect  of  the  Declaration  of  Indepen 
dence  is  also  seen.  New  York,  as  a  State,  appears  to 
have  taken  the  lead  in  prohibitory  legislation.  On 
February  28, 1788,  she  enacted  that  no  slave  should  be 
imported  within  her  boundaries,  nor  should  any  be 
purchased  in  the  State  for  export.  The  penalty  was 
£100. 

Massachusetts  followed,  on  March  25,  1788,  and 
prohibited  to  her  citizens  the  African  slave-trade. 
There  was  nothing  in  the  act  to  prevent  carrying  slaves 
from  any  other  continent. 

Pennsylvania  four  days  later  was  more  sweeping,  for 
8 


H4  THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

it  prohibited  the  trade  "  to,  from,  or  between  Europe, 
Asia,  Africa,  or  America,  or  any  places  or  countries 
whatever." 

South  Carolina,  during  this  year,  prohibited  the 
trade  for  a  period  (until  January  1,  1793).  Delaware 
followed  with  prohibition  on  February  3,  1789. 

On  May  13,  1789,  it  was  proposed  in  Congress  to  tax 
the  importation  of  slaves  at  $10  a  head.  The  national 
government  needed  money  badly,  but  this  proposal 
to  share  in  the  profits  of  the  trade  was  never  carried. 

The  first  real  step  toward  a  national  restriction  of 
the  trade  under  the  Constitution  was  taken  on  March 
23,  1790.  The  abolitionists  had  been  stirring  up  the 
menagerie — if  one  may  be  allowed  the  only  term  graph 
ically  descriptive  of  the  members  in  their  ordinary 
motives  and  doings  in  connection  with  disagreeable 
topics.  Petition  after  petition  on  the  subject  of 
slavery  and  the  trade  had  been  sent  in,  and  Congress 
had  continued  the  policy  of  evasion  inaugurated  at 
the  Constitutional  Convention.  But  on  that  date  the 
House  declared  "that  Congress  have  authority  to 
restrain  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  from  carry 
ing  on  the  African  trade,  for  the  purpose  of  supplying 
foreigners  with  slaves,  and  of  providing,  by  proper 
regulations,  for  the  humane  treatment,  during  their 
passage,  of  slaves  imported  by  the  said  citizens  into 
the  States  admitting  such  importations."  Further, 
"that  Congress  have  authority  to  prohibit  foreigners 
from  fitting  out  vessels  in  any  port  of  the  United 
States  for  transporting  persons  from  Africa  to  any 
foreign  port." 

The  vote  was  twenty-nine  to  twenty-five,  and  even 
that  was  obtained  only  because  the  same  resolutions 


THE    SLAVERS    OUTLAWED 

declared  that  "  Congress  have  no  authority  to  interfere 
in  the  emancipation  of  slaves,  or  in  the  treatment  of 
them  within  the  States,"  and  that  uthe  migration  or 
importation  of  such  persons  as  any  of  the  States  now 
existing  shall  think  proper  to  admit  cannot  be  pro 
hibited  by  Congress  prior  to  the  year  one  thousand, 
eight  hundred  and  eight." 

Four  years  passed  before  anything  was  done  under 
these  declared  powers.  The  ills  of  the  slave-trade  as 
described  by  the  witnesses  before  the  English  Parlia 
ment  became  widely  known  in  this  country,  and  the 
abolitionists,  led  by  the  persistent  Quakers,  kept  nag 
ging  Congress  with  petitions  for  the  abolition  of 
slavery,  but  Congress  went  on,  brushing  these  aside, 
until  the  shadow  of  the  storm  raised  in  Hayti  by 
Toussaint  L'Ouverture  darkened  the  southern  horizon. 
The  slaves  of  the  great  island  just  east  of  Cuba  arose, 
and  in  a  day,  so  to  speak,  had  asserted  and  maintained 
the  principle  that  all  men  are  born  free  and  equal. 
Their  rising,  like  that  of  the  oppressed  in  France,  was 
marked  with  the  violence  that  power  suddenly  released 
from  restraint  always  shows.  Many  and  frightful 
were  the  deeds  of  bloodshed  and  rapine,  and  the 
thought  of  these  and  of  the  real  cause  of  them  made 
the  white  American  legislators  cower. 

"  A  Quaker  petition  for  a  law  against  the  transport 
traffic  in  slaves  was  received  without  a  murmur  in 
1794,  and  on  March  22  of  that  year  the  first  national 
act  against  the  slave-trade  became  a  law." 

The  student  finds,  as  he  reads  through  the  great  mass 
of  American  works  on  slavery  printed  since  that  day, 
that  many  of  the  writers  announce,  with  a  flourish  of 
Old  Glory,  that  the  United  States  was  the  first  nation 


THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

to  prohibit  the  slave-trade.     They  think  this  act  pro 
hibited  the  trade. 

The  truth  is  the  act  was  merely  "  to  prohibit  the 
carrying  on  the  Slave-trade  from  the  United  States  to 
any  foreign  place  or  country"  and  to  prohibit  fitting 
out  slavers  here  for  a  foreign  country.  It  was  merely 
an  act  in  mild  restraint  of  the  trade — so  mild,  in  fact, 
that  it  never  injured  the  slavers  to  the  extent  of  a 
dollar. 

Here  the  matter  rested  for  six  years — save  only  that 
by  the  act  of  April  3,  1798,  "  in  relation  to  the  Missis 
sippi  territory,"  to  which  the  constitutional  provision 
did  not  extend,  the  introduction  of  slaves  was  forbid 
den,  under  severe  penalties,  and  every  slave  imported 
contrary  to  the  act  was  to  be  entitled  to  freedom. 
But  in  1800  a  petition  of  Pennsylvania  free  negroes  for 
a  revision  of  the  laws  relating  to  the  slave-trade,  the 
fugitive  slave  law,  and  for  gradual  emancipation,  once 
more  stirred  the  House  to  fever  heat. 

In  the  debate  that  followed,  D.ana,  of  Connecticut, 
declared  that  the  petition  contained  "  nothing  but  a 
farrago  of  the  French  metaphysics  of  liberty  and 
equality."  That  from  Connecticut ! 

Brown,  of  Ehode  Island,  said :  "  We  want  money  ; 
we  want  a  navy  ;  we  ought  therefore  to  use  the  means 
to  obtain  it.  ...  Why  should  we  see  Great  Brit 
ain  getting  all  the  slave-trade  to  themselves — why  may 
not  our  country  be  enriched  by  that  lucrative  traffic  ? " 

Congress,  however,  made  it  unlawful  not  only  to  fit 
out  ships  for  the  foreign  slave-trade  but  to  hold  any 
interest,  direct  or  indirect,  in  foreign  slaver  voyages. 
And  serving  on  slavers  was  prohibited  to  American 
citizens.  Naval  vessels  were  directed  to  make  prizes 


THE    SLAVERS    OUTLAWED  H7 

of  any  American  slave-ships,  and  the  guilty  merchants 
and  crews  were  to  bear,  on  conviction,  an  imprison 
ment  of  two  years  as  well  as  a  fine  of  $2,000  for  a 
maximum  penalty.  The  slaves  were  to  be  forfeited, 
but  what  was  to  be  done  with  them  was  not  said,  al 
though  the  captors  were  not  to  have  them. 

It  was  still  lawful  to  import  slaves  from  Africa  into 
any  State  permitting  the  trade.  On  February  28, 
1803,  a  bill  became  a  law  which  provided  for  the  for 
feiture  of  any  ship  that  should  bring  into  any  State, 
contrary  to  its  laws,  uany  negro,  mulatto,  or  other 
person  of  color."  The  ship-master  violating  this  law 
was  to  be  fined  $1,000.  Curiously  enough,  this  law 
was  passed  on  presentation  of  a  petition  from  North 
Carolina.  Some  Haytian  negroes  had  landed  at  Wil 
mington,  and  the  North  Carolinians  were  frightened 
by  the  thought  that  the  Hay  tians  were  emissaries  come 
to  preach  the  Haytian  ideas  of  liberty  and  equality. 

Nevertheless  the  great  profits  in  cotton  planting, 
after  Whitney  invented  the  cotton  gin,  and  was  robbed 
of  his  rights,  caused  a  reaction  in  favor  of  the  slave- 
trade.  To  obtain  more  negroes  for  the  cotton-field, 
South  Carolina  repealed  her  law  prohibiting  slave  im 
ports.  What  South  Carolina  did  openly,  other  States 
did  sneakingly  ;  they  smuggled  slaves. 

About  that  time  the  Louisiana  Territory  was  under 
consideration  in  Congress,  and  many  slaves  were 
wanted  there.  Harper,  of  South  Carolina,  got  a  bill 
passed  compelling  the  planters  in  Louisiana  to  import 
through  "  the  limits  of  the  United  States ; "  the  practi 
cal  effect  of  the  law  being  to  make  all  slavers  enter 
their  cargoes  at  Charleston,  after  which  they  were  at 
liberty  to  proceed  to  New  Orleans. 


THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

As  a  result  of  this  opening  of  the  traffic  in  South 
Carolina,  two  hundred  and  two  ships  brought  39,075 
slaves  from  Africa  to  Charleston  during  the  years  1804 
to  1807,  inclusive.  According  to  the  official  returns  of 
the  custom  house  as  gathered  by  Senator  Smith,  of 
that  State,  and  reported  to  Congress,  these  ships  were 
divided  as  follows  :  "  From  Connecticut,  1 ;  Boston,  1 ; 
Norfolk,  2  ;  Baltimore,  4  ;  Rhode  Island,  59 ;  Charles 
ton,  61;  Sweden,  1;  France,  3;  Great  Britain,  70." 
There  were  only  sixty-one  ships  nominally  hailing  from 
Northern  ports  engaged  in  the  trade.  But  when  one 
looks  to  see  who  reaped  the  profits,  it  appears  that  of 
the  consignees  of  these  slavers  "88  were  natives  of 
Rhode  Island,  13  of  Charleston,  10  of  France,  and  91 
of  Great  Britain."  A 

Rhode  Island  passed  in  October,  1787,  an  act  to 
prevent  the  importation  of  slaves  into  her  own  terri 
tory  and  to  encourage  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the 
State.  Importation  of  slaves  was  prohibited  under 
penalty  of  a  fine  of  £100  per  negro,  and  £1,000  per 
ship,  but  there  was  nothing  in  her  legislation,  or  in 
any  other  legislation  then  extant,  to  prevent  her  ship 
owners  reaping  the  profits  of  the  open  trade  to  South 
Carolina.  It  was  right  hard  work  to  induce  legislators 
in  those  days  to  shut  off  absolutely  a  business  where 
in  a  man  could  make  $90,000  profit  in  one  round  voy 
age  of  a  ship  worth  less  than  $10,000. 

However,  as  the  year  1808  drew  nigh,  legislation  of 
importance  was  had.  Congress  had  assumed  that  it 
had  the  right  to  prohibit  the  trade  beginning  with  that 
year,  and  President  Jefferson  in  his  message  of  De 
cember  2,  1806,  congratulated  Congress  ' '  on  the  ap 
proach  of  the  period  at  which  you  may  interpose 


THE    SLAVERS    OUTLAWED  119 

your  authority  constitutionally  "  to  prohibit  the  slave- 
trade.  The  next  day — December  3 — Bradley,  of  Ver 
mont,  introduced  the  bill  that  became  the  act  of 
March  2,  1807. 

The  first  part  of  it  considered  was  the  disposal  of 
the  slaves  in  vessels  to  be  captured  while  attempting 
to  bring  slaves  in — that  the  ship-owners  would  violate 
the  law  was  taken  as  a  matter  of  course.  The  anti- 
slavery  men  wanted  the  negroes  so  captured  to  be 
free,  but  were  willing  to  have  them  indentured,  even 
for  life.  This  was  asking  more  than  could  be  ob 
tained.  The  fear  of  having  free  blacks  turned  loose 
in  slave-holding  communities — the  fear  that  the  free 
blacks  would  incite  insurrections  was  too  strong. 

Of  course  there  were  moral  objections  to  selling  the 
slaves,  but  Congressman  Joseph  Clay  declared  "mo 
rality  has  nothing  to  do  with  this  traffic.  It  must  ap 
pear  to  every  man  of  common-sense  that  the  question 
can  be  considered  in  a  commercial  point  of  view  only." 
Worse  yet,  Congressmen  were  found  to  argue  for  the 
"decent  appearance"  of  the  statute  book.  They 
were  drabs  who  feared  detection,  not  the  sin. 

Of  course,  in  the  state  of  civilization  then  prevail 
ing  the  commercial  consideration  necessarily  pre 
vailed.  The  law  (section  4),  as  at  last  passed,  pro 
vided  that  "  neither  the  importer,  nor  any  person  or 
persons  claiming  under  him,  shall  hold  any  right  or 
title  whatsoever"  to  any  negro  which  might  be  capt 
ured  on  a  slaver  coming  to  the  United  States,  "but 
the  same  shall  remain  subject  to  any  regulations,"  not 
contrary  to  this  act,  which  "  the  several  States  or 
Territories''  might  make  in  the  matter. 

So  Congress  in  trying  to  stop  the  traffic  provided 


120  THE  AMEEICAN  SLAVE-TRADE 

that  the  unfortunates  brought  from  Africa  should  not 
regain  the  liberty  they  had  lost  through  the  work  of 
land  pirates. 

No  slaves  were  smuggled  into  the  Northern  region. 
In  the  South  some  States  passed  no  law  on  this  matter, 
and  in  others  the  laws  varied  widely.  The  Alabama- 
Mississippi  territory  act  of  1815  provided  for  the  sale  of 
the  negroes  by  public  auction,  for  cash,  to  the  highest 
bidder,  the  informer  to  have  half  the  proceeds  of  the 
sale,  and  the  other  half  to  go  to  the  public  treasury. 
How  this  law  worked  will  appear  later  on.  In  North 
Carolina  (law  of  1816)  one-fifth  of  such  sales  went  to 
the  informer.  In  Georgia  the  slaves,  by  the  act  of 
December  18,  1817,  might  be  usold,  after  giving  sixty 
days'  notice  in  a  public  gazette,"  or  "if  the  society  for 
the  colonization  of  free  persons  of  color  .  »  -  .  will 
undertake  to  transport  them  to  Africa  .  .  .  at  the 
sole  expense  of  said  society,  and  shall  likewise  pay  all 
expenses  incurred  by  the  State  since  they  had  been 
captured  and  condemned,  His  Excellency  the  Gov 
ernor  is  authorized  and  requested  to  aid  in  promoting 
the  benevolent  views  of  said  society." 

No  national  law  regulating  the  disposal  of  such 
slaves  as  these  was  passed  until  after  the  war  of  1812. 

Another  matter  considered  in  connection  with  this 
bill  introduced  on  December  3,  1806,  was  the  coastwise 
traffic  between  the  States.  The  efforts  to  prohibit  that 
failed  ;  but  the  law  provided  that  no  ship  under  forty 
tons  should  engage  in  it.  There  was  no  limit  to  the 
number  of  slaves  that  might  be  carried,  although  a 
voyage  from  the  Chesapeake  to  New  Orleans  fre 
quently  lasted  as  long  as  one  from  Africa  to  the  West 
Indies. 


THE    SLAVERS    OUTLAWED 

The  penalties  provided  for  the  violation  of  this  act 
included  forfeiture  of  the  ship  "  to  the  United  States" ; 
a  fine  of  $20,000  to  be  imposed  for  fitting  out  a  slaver ; 
a  fine  of  $5,000  for  aiding  in  the  importation  of  slaves  ; 
a  fine  of  from  $1,000  to  $10,000,  with  imprisonment 
ranging  from  five  to  ten  years,  for  taking  slaves  on 
board  a  ship  from  Africa  or  any  other  foreign  country, 
and  a  fine  of  $800  for  buying  a  smuggled  slave. 

Furthermore,  the  President  was  authorized  to  "  cause 
any  of  the  armed  vessels  of  the  United  States"  to  be 
employed  "  to  cruise  on  any  part  of  the  coast  of  the 
United  States"  in  search  of  smugglers.  In  case  any 
such  smuggler  was  captured  the  captain,  on  conviction, 
was  to  be  imprisoned  from  two  to  four  years,  and  fined 
not  to  exceed  $10,000.  The  ship  was  to  be  forfeited 
as  a  prize  to  the  naval  ship.  The  negroes  were  to  be 
delivered  to  the  State  authorities  where  the  slaver 
prize  found  a  port. 

This  law  has  often  been  mentioned  as  the  result  of  a 
great  moral  victory — and,  of  course,  it  did  show  some 
progress  in  American  civilization  ;  but  when  the  facts 
are  considered  we  find  that  practically  it  was  a  mere 
dead-letter. 


CHAPTER  XI 

TALES   OF  THE   EARLIER  SMUGGLERS 

A  Slaver's  Ferry  Between  Havana  and  the  Florida  Ports — 
Amelia  Island  as  a  Smugglers'  Headquarters— The  Bara- 
taria  Pirates  and  the  Smuggling  Trade— Extent  of  the 
Illegal  Traffic— A  Georgia  Governor  who  Left  His  Post  to 
Become  a  Slave  Smuggler. 

NOTHING  like  a  complete  story  of  the  smuggling 
traffic  in  slaves  carried  on  along  the  coasts  of  the 
United  States  has  ever  been  told,  and  none  can  be 
told,  because  of  conditions  that  were  very  well  stated 
by  Congressman  Lowndes,  of  South  Carolina,  in  the 
House  on  February  14,  1804.  "  With  navigable  rivers 
running  into  the  heart  of  it  [his  State],  it  was  impos 
sible,  with  our  means,  to  prevent  our  Eastern  breth 
ren,  who  in  some  parts  of  the  Union,  in  defiance  of  the 
authority  of  the  general  Government,  have  been  en 
gaged  in  this  trade,  from  introducing  them  into  the 
country.  The  law  was  completely  evaded,  and  for  the 
last  year  or  two  Africans  were  introduced  into  the 
country  in  numbers  little  short,  I  believe,  of  what 
they  would  have  been  had  the  trade  been  a  legal 
one." 

The  fling  at  New  England  ship-owners  was  entirely 
justified  by  the  facts,  but  ifc  will  also  be  observed  that 
citizens  of  South  Carolina  were  the  receivers  of  the 
goods  stolen  by  the  New  England  thieves. 

122 


TALES    OF    THE    EARLIER    SMUGGLERS  123 

Another  popular  Florida  port  was  Pensacola. 
There  was  a  regular  slave-ferry  between  Havana  and 
Pensacola  in  the  days  when  Florida  was  Spanish  ter 
ritory.  When  General  Jackson  seized  Pensacola  in 
the  spring  of  1818,  Colonel  Brooke  captured  the 
slaver  Constitution  with  eighty -four  negroes  on  board, 
while  Lieutenant  McKeever,  of  the  naval  forces,  capt 
ured  the  Louisa  and  the  Marino  with  twenty-three 
slaves  between  them.  All  these  slaves  were  destined 
to  the  United  States  for  a  market.  Considering  the 
fact  that  three  slavers  were  found  in  or  near  the  port 
at  one  time,  it  is  fair  to  suppose  that  at  least  one  slaver 
a  week  was  the  average  of  arrivals. 

Congressman  Mitchell  estimated  that  20,000  were 
smuggled  in  each  year.  In  1810  President  Madison 
referred  to  the  traffic  and  said  he  believed  that  u  just 
and  benevolent  motives"  would  "  be  felt  by  Con 
gress  in  devising  further  means  of  suppressing  the 
evil." 

On  January  22,  1811,  Secretary  of  the  Navy  Paul 
Hamilton  wrote  to  Captain  H.  G.  Campbell,  the  com 
manding  naval  officer  at  Charleston,  S.  C.,  saying : 
"I  hear,  not  without  great  concern,  that  the  law  pro 
hibiting  the  importation  of  slaves  has  been  violated 
in  frequent  instances  at  St.  Mary's  (Ga.),  since  the  gun 
boats  have  been  withdrawn  from  that  station.  .  .  . 
Hasten  the  equipment  of  the  gunboats  .  .  .  and 
despatch  them  to  St.  Mary's  with  orders  to  use  all 
practicable  diligence." 

The  extent  of  the  traffic  here  mentioned  may  be  im 
agined  from  what  is  said  by  the  author  of  the  "  Voy 
age  of  the  Ship  Two  Friends"  who  was  in  a  position 
to  learn  some  of  the  facts  before  he  wrote  his  book. 


124  THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TEADE 

"  During  the  existence  of  the  impolitic  intercourse  act 
...  so  great  was  the  trade  [of  all  kinds]  that  three 
hundred  sail  of  square-rigged  vessels  were  seen  at 
one  time  in  the  Spanish  waters  waiting  for  cargoes. " 
Amelia  Island  was  then  probably  the  most  populous 
slave-station  in  the  world. 

Another  notable  slave-station  on  the  borders  of  the 
United  States  previous  to  the  war  of  1812  was  that 
established  at  Barataria,  southwest  of  New  Orleans, 
where  Jean  Lafitte  ruled.  Lafitte's  piratical  cruisers 
captured  many  slavers  arid  brought  their  cargoes  to 
Barataria.  The  bayous  between  that  and  the  Missis 
sippi  were  admirably  suited  for  smugglers.  They 
smuggled  all  kinds  of  goods,  but  negroes  paid  best  of 
all.  The  operations  became  so  bold  that  the  national 
Government  sent  Commodore  D.  T.  Patterson,  of  the 
navy,  and  Colonel  George  T.  Ross,  of  the  army,  with 
forces  that  destroyed  the  settlement.  The  vessels  and 
other  property  captured  sold  for  $50,000,  and  this  sum 
was  distributed  among  our  men  who  had  part  in  the 
expedition.  That  so  great  a  sum  was  realized  at 
forced  sale  for  the  property  shows  how  extensive  the 
Barataria  smuggling  business  was. 

After  the  war  of  1812  the  people  chiefly  concerned 
in  the  Barataria  colony  went  to  Galveston  Island  and 
there  established  what  they  called  the  Government  of 
the  new  State  of  Texas.  This  was  done  in  1817  but 
the  exact  date  is  not  recorded.  The  ruling  spirit  was 
"  Commodore  Louis  Aury,"  who  had  held  a  commis 
sion  in  the  New  Grenada  navy,  but  was  in  1817  act 
ing  under  a  commission  issued  by  Herrero,  an  agent 
of  the  Mexican  republic.  Aury  called  himself  the 
Commodore  of  the  allied  fleet  in  the  war  with  Spain, 


TALES    OF    THE    EAKLIER,    SMUGGLEKS  125 

He  set  up  a  court  of  admiralty,  and  before  this  court 
lie  brought  and  condemned  such  vessels  as  his  "  allied 
fleet"  could  capture.  To  dispose  of  the  property  thus 
obtained  he  adopted  the  smuggling  tactics  of  the  Bar- 
atarians,  and  he  found  plenty  of  men  in  New  Orleans 
ready  to  assist  him. 

On  April  5,  1817,  Aury  removed  his  establishment 
down  to  Matagorda,  and  thence  to  Amelia  Island, 
Fla.,  where  the  smuggling  operations  became  so 
bold  and  extensive  as  to  attract  the  attention  of  the 
whole  nation. 

In  fact  the  business  became  so  profitable  that  Gov 
ernor  David  B.  Mitchell,  of  Georgia,  resigned  his  hon 
orable  office  and  became  the  United  States  agent  of  the 
Creek  Indians  in  order  that  he  might,  as  he  supposed, 
safely  participate  in  the  smuggling  traffic.  The  Creek 
agency  was  in  the  midst  of  the  wilderness  then  lying 
between  the  Georgia  settlements  and  the  new  planta 
tions  of  the  Louisiana  purchase.  Mitchell  had  the 
slaves  taken  by  obscure  trails  to  his  headquarters  at 
the  agency,  and  he  intended  to  distribute  them  thence 
to  the  Louisiana  plantations.  He  supposed  that  the 
routes  to  be  followed,  the  location  of  the  agency,  and 
his  personal  influence  combined  would  enable  him  to 
do  a  wholesale  smuggling  business  in  perfect  safety. 
But  he  was  detected,  and  lost  money  as  well  as  his 
honor.  The  facts  in  this  matter  can  be  found  in  the 
"American  State  Papers" — Miscellaneous — Vol.  II., p. 
957.  It  seems  necessary  to  give  the  authority  for  this 
story  lest  it  seem  wholly  incredible. 

The  documents  in  this  case  (p.  962)  show  that  "  prime 
fellows  were  offered  at  Amelia  at  $250  ;  ordinary  from 
$175  to  $200."  Therefore  the  net  profit  in  smuggling 


126  THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

slaves  into  the  United  States  varied  between  $350  and 
$500  per  head. 

Details  of  the  smugglers'  methods  are  to  be  had  in 
sufficient  number,  but  the  story  of  one  trip  described 
by  Drake  may  suffice  for  all. 

"The  kaffle,  under  charge  of  negro  drivers,  was  to 
strike  up  the  Escambia  River,  and  thence  cross  the 
boundary  into  Georgia,  where  some  of  our  wild  Afri 
cans  were  mixed  with  various  squads  of  native  blacks 
and  driven  inland  till  sold  off,  singly  or  by  couples, 
on  the  road.  .  .  .  The  Spanish  possessions  were 
thriving  on  this  inland  exchange  of  negroes.  .  .  * 
Florida  was  a  sort  of  nursery  for  slave-breeders,  and 
many  American  citizens  grew  rich  by  trafficking  in 
Guinea  negroes  and  smuggling  them  continually,  in 
small  parties,  through  the  Southern  United  States.  At 
the  time  I  mention,  the  business  was  a  lively  one." 


CHAPTER   XII 

SLAVERS    DECLARED   PIRATES 

Fines  and  Imprisonment  with  Rewards  for  Informers  were  not 
Sufficient  to  Stop  Slave  Smuggling — Workings  of  the  Pro 
hibitive  Legislation  Illustrated  by  the  Doings  of  the  Knife- 
Inventor  Bowie  and  the  Pirate  Lafitte — Slaves  Sold  by  the 
Pound— Influences  that  Led  to  the  Piracy  Act. 

WITH  the  smoke  of  the  Amelia  Island  camp-fires  in 
their  eyes  and  nostrils  our  national  legislators  under 
took  the  task  of  making  the  dead  law  of  1807-08  a  live 
one.  Both  houses  brought  in  bills,  but  adroit  politi 
cians  were  found  in  Congress  to  see  that  the  power  of 
the  bills  was  weakened,  if  not  destroyed,  and  in  this 
case  these  politicians  succeeded  in  ruining  the  bill 
altogether. 

The  bill  as  passed  was  entitled  "  An  act  in  addition 
to  '  an  act  to  prohibit  the  introduction  [importation] 
of  slaves  into  any  port  or  place  within  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  United  States,  from  and  after  the  first  day  of 
January  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1808,'  and  to  repeal 
certain  parts  of  the  same."  It  was  approved  on  April 
20,  1818. 

It  might  with  truth  have  been  entitled  "  An  act  to 
promote  treachery  among  smugglers."  Congress  sup 
posed  that  by  appealing  to  the  cupidity  of  the  lawless, 
and  offering  a  cash  premium  to  those  smugglers  who 

127 


128  THE   AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

would  inform  on  their  associates,  the  morality  of  the 
smuggling  region  would  be  improved. 

To  show  how  the  new  law  differed  from  that  of  1807, 
it  may  be  said  that  the  old  provided  (see  sec.  2)  that 
"  every  such  ship"  engaged  in  importing  slaves  "shall 
be  forfeited  to  the  United  States."  The  law  of  1818 
[sec.  1]  provided  "  forfeiture,  in  any  district  in  which 
it  may  be  found ;  one-half  thereof  to  the  use  of  the 
United  States,  and  the  other  half  to  him  or  them  who 
shall  prosecute  the  same  to  effect." 

But  while  the  act  was  ineffective,  as  a  whole,  one 
section  (8)  is  of  interest  because  it  clearly  shows  a  ten 
dency  in  Congress  at  that  time  to  extirpate  the  trade. 
Therein  it  was  provided  that  in  "all  prosecutions 
under  this  act  the  defendant  or  defendants  shall  be 
holden  to  prove"  that  the  slave  "  which  he  or  they 
shall  be  charged  with  having  brought  into  the  United 
States,  or  with  purchasing,  selling,  or  otherwise  dis 
posing  of"  the  same,  "  was  brought  into  the  United 
States  at  least  five  years  previous  to  the  commence 
ment  of  such  prosecution,  or  was  not  brought  in, 
holden,  or  purchased,  or  otherwise  disposed  of  con 
trary  to  the  provisions  of  this  act."  To  throw  the 
burden  of  proof  on  the  accused  was  a  novelty  in 
American  legislation. 

The  next  year  Congress  acknowledged  this  law  to 
be  inefficient  by  passing  the  act  of  March  3,  1819. 
While  this  was  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  Nel 
son,  of  Virginia,  had  a  clause  inserted  providing  the 
death  penalty  for  engaging  in  the  traffic.  This  pen 
alty  was  struck  out  in  the  Senate.  Du  Bois  notes 
here  that  Congress  was  already  beginning  to  divide 
on  party  as  well  as  geographical  lines  when  slavery 


SLAVERS    DECLARED    PIRATES  129 

was  to  be  considered.  The  bill  of  1818  was  favored, 
he  says,  "by  the  South,  the  Senate,  and  the  Demo 
crats."  The  law  of  1819  was  the  bill  of  the  North, 
the  House,  and  by  the  as  yet  undeveloped  but  grow 
ing  Whig  Party. 

Under  the  act  of  1819  the  President,  in  section  1, 
was  "authorized,  whenever  he  shall  deem  it  expe 
dient,  to  cause  any  of  the  armed  vessels  of  the  United 
States  to  be  employed  to  cruise  on  any  of  the  coasts 
of  the  United  States  or  territories  thereof,  or  of  the 
coasts  of  Africa  or  elsewhere  ...  to  seize ' '  Amer 
ican  slavers.  The  proceeds  from  the  sale  of  seized 
slavers  were  to  be  divided  between  the  nation  and  the 
naval  crew,  and  a  bounty  of  $25  for  each  slave  so 
taken  was  given  in  addition. 

The  President  was  also  authorized  to  appoint  an 
agent  to  reside  on  the  coast  of  Africa  (Liberia)  to  re 
ceive  and  care  for  the  negroes  when  captured. 

Plain  citizen  informers  were  to  have  half  the 
proceeds  of  fines  and  $50  cash  bonus  for  each 
slave  captured  in  the  course  of  smuggling  opera 
tions. 

On  the  other  hand,  in  the  interests  of  the  slavers, 
it  was  provided  (sec.  5)  that  a  naval  officer  must 
"bring  the  vessel  and  her  cargo,  for  adjudication,  into 
some  port  of  the  State  or  Territory  to  which  such  ves 
sel  so  captured  shall  belong,  if  he  can  ascertain  the 
same."  This  section  was  added  on  the  motion  of 
Congressman  Butler,  of  Louisiana,  who  said  he  had 
"a  due  regard  for  the  interests  of  the  State  that  he 
represented."  The  slave-ships  owned  in  New  Orleans, 
for  instance,  were  to  be  sent  to  New  Orleans  for  ad 
judication.  Section  4  provides  also  that  "it  shall  be 
9 


130  THE   AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

ascertained  by  verdict  of  a  jury"  whether  a  ship  had 
violated  the  law. 

To  show  how  this  law  operated  we  may  quote  a 
passage  from  the  life  of  the  noted  James  Bowie,  of 
New  Orleans,  who  gave  his  name  to  the  famous  sheath- 
knife.  Bowie,  with  his  brother,  Rezin  Bowie,  and  two 
others  of  like  adventurous  minds,  formed  a  company, 
and  entered  into  treaty  with  Lafitte,  who  was  still  a 
chief  spirit  among  the  smugglers  in  the  Gulf  region. 
Lafitte  "  sold  them  sound  and  likely  blacks  off  his 
slave-ships  at  the  rate  of  a  dollar  a  pound.  That  made 
the  average  price  something  like  $140  the  head.  In 
the  open  market  the  blacks  would  fetch  from  $500  to 
$1,000  each."  Having  purchased  the  slaves,  the  or 
dinary  course  was  to  sneak  them  through  bayous  to 
any  purchaser  they  could  find.  But  taking  advantage 
of  the  law  that  gave  half  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  of 
the  negroes  to  the  informer,  besides  a  bounty  of  $50  a 
head,  they  often  informed  on  each  other,  under  false 
names,  and  had  the  slaves  condemned  and  sold  by 
due  process  of  law.  At  the  sale  no  competitors  ap 
peared,  because  it  was  fully  understood  in  the  com 
munity  that  Bowie  was  evading  the  law,  and,  slaves 
being  in  demand,  public  sentiment  supported  the 
transaction.  The  Bowies  made  a  good  profit  in  these 
transactions,  the  Government  officials  got  fat  fees,  and 
planters  got  the  slaves  at  market  prices. 

"  Altogether  the  company  realized  a  profit  of  some 
$65,000  within  a  couple  of  years.  But  the  business 
involved  such  mummery  and  flummery  of  false  names, 
pretended  disguises,  and  pretended  seizures  that  the 
Bowies  pretty  soon  tired  of  it."  They  were  a  rough 
lot,  but  they  were  not  sneaks.  They  proved,  long  be- 


SLAVERS    DECLARED    PIRATES  131 

fore  the  words  were  written,  that  "it  is  physically  im 
possible  for  a  brave  man  to  make  money  the  chief 
object  of  his  thoughts." 

When  Congress  reassembled  in  December  after  pass 
ing  the  act  of  March  3,  1819,  the  slave-trade  came  up  for 
further  consideration.  The  colonization  society  that  es 
tablished  Liberia,  of  which  the  story  is  to  be  told,  had, 
by  its  activity  in  various  ways,  increased  the  public 
knowledge  of  the  evils  of  the  slave-trade.  Further 
more,  it  was  able  to  reach  the  slave-holders  for  two 
reasons.  First,  it  was  pledged  not  to  interfere  with 
American  slavery.  Second,  it  was  formed  for  the 
specific  purpose  of  removing  the  slave-holder's  chief 
eyesore,  the  free  negro,  out  of  the  United  States. 

Undoubtedly  there  were  in  the  United  States  many 
people  who  were  opposed  to  the  trade  because  of  prin 
ciple.  But  the  student  cannot  overlook  the  fact  that 
the  feeling  against  the  trade  was  able  to  make  head 
way  because  there  was  no  financial  interest  in  slaves 
or  slavers  at  the  North,  outside  of  a  few  ports,  and  at 
the  South  there  were  increasing  numbers  of  slave-own 
ers  who  had  slaves  to  sell  through  the  natural  increase 
of  their  holdings.  The  fact  that  the  coastwise  trade 
had  demanded  consideration  in  the  previous  legislation 
is  significant.  Virginia  was  already  the  mother  of  an 
export  trade  in  slaves.  To  prohibit  absolutely  the 
importation  of  wild  Africans  was  to  "  bull  the  market " 
for  the  planters  who  found  more  profit  in  breeding 
slaves  than  in  cultivating  the  soil. 

Meantime  the  privateers,  so-called,  of  the  Latin- 
American  republics  had  made  alarming  attacks  on 
our  unarmed  merchant  ships.  Pirates  swarmed  over 
the  West  India  seas,  and  their  doings  were  justly  be- 


132  ™E   AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

lieved  to  be,  in  many  cases,  chargeable  to  the  slave- 
trade.  The  slavers  turned  pirates,  and  the  pirates 
turned  slavers,  as  occasion  warranted. 

In  short,  from  good  motives  and  bad,  a  bill  was 
brought  in  that  became  the  act  of  May  15,  1820. 
Because  it  provided  the  death  penalty  for  partici 
pation  in  the  slave-trade,  the  sections  pertaining  to 
the  trade  shall  be  given  in  full : 

And  be  it  further  enacted.  That,  if  any  citizen  of  -the  United 
States,  being  of  the  crew  or  ship's  company  of  any  foreign 
ship  or  vessel  engaged  in  the  slave-trade,  or  any  person  what 
ever  being  of  the  crew  or  ship's  company  of  any  ship  or  vessel 
owned  in  whole  or  in  part,  or  navigated  for,  or  in  behalf  of, 
any  citizen  or  citizens  of  the  United  States,  shall  land,  from  any 
such  ship  or  vessel,  and,  on  any  foreign  shore,  seize  any  negro 
or  mulatto,  not  held  to  service  or  labor  by  the  laws  of  either  of 
the  States  or  Territories  of  the  United  States,  with  intent  to 
make  such  negro  or  mulatto  a  slave,  or  shall  decoy,  or  forcibly 
bring  or  carry,  or  shall  receive,  such  negro  or  mulatto  on 
board  any  such  ship  or  vessel,  with  intent  as  aforesaid,  such 
citizen  or  person  shall  be  adjudged  a  pirate,  and,  on  convic 
tion  thereof,  before  the  Circuit  Court  of  the  United  States 
for  the  district  wherein  he  may  be  brought  or  found,  shall 
suffer  death. 

And  be  it  further  enacted,  That,  if  any  citizen  of  the  United 
States,  being  of  the  crew  or  ship's  company  of  any  foreign 
ship  or  vessel  engaged  in  the  slave-trade,  or  any  person  what 
ever,  being  of  the  crew  or  ship's  company  of  any  ship  or  vessel 
owned  wholly  or  in  part,  or  navigated  for,  or  in  behalf  of,  any 
citizen  or  citizens  of  the  United  States,  shall  forcibly  confine, 
or  detain,  or  aid  or  abet  in  forcibly  confining,  or  detaining, 
on  board  such  ship  or  vessel,  any  negro  or  mulatto  not  held 
to  service  by  the  laws  of  either  of  the  States  or  Territories  of 
the  United  States,  with  intent  to  make  such  negro  or  mulatto 
a  slave,  or  shall,  on  board  any  such  ship  or  vessel,  offer  or 
attempt  to  sell,  as  a  slave,  any  negro  or  mulatto  not  held  to 


SLAVEKS    DECLARED    PIRATES  133 

service  as  aforesaid,  or  shall,  on  the  high  seas,  or  anywhere 
on  tide-water,  transfer  or  deliver  over,  to  any  other  ship  or 
vessel,  any  negro  or  mulatto  not  held  to  service  as  aforesaid, 
with  intent  to  make  such  negro  or  mulatto  a  slave,  or  shall 
land  or  deliver  on  shore,  from  on  board  any  such  ship  or 
vessel,  any  such  negro  or  mulatto,  with  intent  to  make  sale 
of,  or,  having  previously  sold,  such  negro  or  mulatto  as  a 
slave,  such  citizen  or  person  shall  be  adjudged  a  pirate,  and, 
on  conviction  thereof  before  the  Circuit  Court  of  the  United 
States  for  the  district  wherein  he  shall  be  brought  or  found, 
shall  suffer  death. 

An  an  expression  of  the  sentiment  of  the  nation  as 
a  whole  at  that  time,  regarding  the  slave-trade,  that 
law  seems  unmistakable.  But  that  was  not  all  that 
Congress  did  to  show  the  determination  of  the  nation 
to  suppress  the  slave-trade.  On  May  12th  a  resolution 
passed  the  House  as  follows : 

"  That  the  President  of  the  United  States  be  requested  to 
negotiate  with  all  the  Governments  where  Ministers  of  the 
United  States  are  or  shall  be  accredited,  on  the  means  of 
effecting  an  entire  and  immediate  abolition  of  the  slave- 
trade." 

The  law  was  comprehensive  and  just.  Though  lim 
ited  in  life  to  two  years,  it  was  made  perpetual  by  a 
joint  resolution  on  January  30,  1823.  This  resolution 
looked  to  a  wide-spread  and  thorough  enforcement  of 
the  law.  It  was  a  good  resolution. 


CHAPTER   XIII 

INTERNATIONAL  CO-OPERATION  FOR  SUPPRESSING 
THE  TRADE 

Work  of  British  Diplomacy  among  the  Continental  Powers— 
When  Spain  agreed  to  Abolish  the  Slave-trade  for  a 
Money  Consideration  and  Failed  to  Fulfil  Her  Contract — 
A  Free  Offer  of  "  Sailors'  Rights  "  which  We  Refused  to 
Accept — A  Shameful  Record  in  American  Slaver  Legisla 
tion — The  Ashburton  Treaty. 

MEANTIME  in  Europe,  in  1804,  an  act  in  Denmark, 
abolishing  the  slave-trade,  which  had  been  passed  in 
1792,  came  into  operation.  In  1806  Great  Britain  pro 
posed  to  the  United  States  a  treaty  "of  amity,  com 
merce,  and  navigation"  under  which  the  two  nations 
were  to  "  agree  to  use  their  best  endeavors  to  procure 
the  co-operation  of  other  Powers  for  the  final  and  com 
plete  abolition  of  a  trade  so  repugnant  to  the  principles 
of  justice  and  humanity,"  but  the  United  States  re 
fused  to  join. 

Finding  that  the  act  of  1807  was  ineffective,  the 
British  legislators  in  1811  declared  participation  in  the 
trade  by  any  British  subject  a  felony  punishable  with 
fourteen  years'  transportation. 

On  March  29,  1815,  Napoleon,  on  assuming  control 
of  France  after  his  return  from  Elba,  decreed  the  abo 
lition  of  the  slave-trade.  This  decree  was  re-enacted 
in  1818  by  the  Bourbon  dynasty. 

134 


CO-OPERATION   FOE   SUPPEESSING    THE    TEADE      135 

By  the  treaty  of  Ghent,  concluded  December  24, 
1814,  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  agreed  to 
"use  their  best  endeavors"  for  the  abolition  of  the 
trade. 

On  February  8, 1815,  "  five  of  the  principal  Powers 
[Great  Britain,  Kussia,  Prussia,  Austria,  and  France] 
made  a  solemn  engagement,  in  the  face  of  mankind, 
that  this  traffic  should  be  made  to  cease,  in  pursuance 
of  which  these  Powers  have  enacted  municipal  laws  to 
suppress  the  trade." 

On  July  23,  1817,  Great  Britain  and  Portugal  made 
a  treaty  whereby  "ships  of  war  of  each  nation  might 
visit  merchant  vessels  of  both,  if  suspected  of  having 
slaves  on  board,  acquired  by  illicit  traffic. ' '  This  related 
only  to  trade  north  of  the  equator.  On  September  23d 
of  the  same  'year  Spain  agreed,  in  consideration  of 
£400,000  paid  to  her  as  an  inducement,  to  "  the  imme 
diate  abolition  of  the  trade  north  of  the  equator,  its 
entire  abolition  after  [May  30]  1820,  and  the  conces 
sion  of  the  same  mutual  right  of  search  which  the 
treaty  with  Portugal  had  just  established."  Portugal 
agreed  to  abolish  the  trade  absolutely  in  1823. 

Mixed  courts  were  also  established  under  these 
treaties,  but  it  is  certain  that  their  work  was  nullified 
as  far  as  possible  by  both  the  Spanish  and  the  Portu 
guese  people. 

Few  events  more  honorable  to  the  British  nation 
are  described  in  history.  Her  willingness  to  pay  out 
$2,000,000  thus  early  for  the  benefit  of  a  down-trod 
den  race  was  not  only  a  forerunner  of  a  similar  and 
much  greater  sacrifice,  but  it  was  characteristic.  That 
Spain  should  have  bee«i  willing  to  accept  pay  under 
such  circumstances,  and  that  she  should  then  have  de- 


136  THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

liberately  violated  the  contract  for  more  than  fifty 
years,  was  also  characteristic. 

On  May  4,  1818,  Great  Britain  and  the  Netherlands 
contracted  for  a  mutual  right  of  search. 

On  March  3,  1824,  Great  Britain  enacted  that  any 
British  subject  found  guilty  of  engaging  in  the  slave- 
trade  should  "be  deemed  and  adjudged  guilty  of 
Piracy,  Felony  and  Robbery,"  and  should  "  suffer 
Death  without  Benefit  of  Clergy,  and  Loss  of  Lands, 
Goods  and  Chattels,  as  Pirates,  Felons  and  Robbers 
upon  the  Seas  ought  to  suffer." 

In  1713  the  Assiento  treaty  was  considered  a  mar- 
vellou's  triumph  of  diplomacy.  In  1824,  the  trade  con 
templated  in  that  treaty  was  denominated  piracy. 

On  November  6,  1824,  Sweden  and  Great  Britain 
agreed  to  a  mutual  right  of  search  on  the  slave-coast, 
and  England  invited  us  to  join  in  such  an  agreement, 
though  we  declined.  In  1820  she  had  done  this  also. 
In  1830  Brazil  prohibited  the  slave-trade  under  severe 
penalties.  In  1831  and  1833  Great  Britain  and  France 
agreed  to  a  mutual  right  of  search,  and  then  together 
invited  the  United  States  to  join  them  under  the 
same  agreement. 

This  is  an  important  matter  from  one  point  of  view. 
We  fought  out  the  war  of  1812  because  of  British  ag 
gression  ;  but,  in  spite  of  our  victories,  the  British, 
when  peace  was  made,  refused  to  concede  our  de 
mands  in  regard  to  the  searching  of  our  ships  and  the 
impressment  of  our  seamen.  But  now,  in  order  to 
suppress  the  slave-trade,  England  not  only  asked  for 
the  right  of  search  within  a  definitely  described  space, 
but  in  terms  both  renounced  all  claims  to  a  right  of 
search  elsewhere  and  offered  to  agree  that  no  seamen 


CO-OPERATION   FOR    SUPPRESSING    THE    TRADE      137 

should  be  impressed  from  the  ships  so  to  be  searched. 
A  pirate  had  been,  by  the  law  of  nations,  a  man  with 
out  a  country :  he  was  the  lawful  prize  of  all  honest 
ships.  The  plain  meaning  of  any  statute  declaring  the 
slave-trade  piracy  was  to  deliver  up  the  slaver  to  the 
vengeance  of  any  lawfully  authorized  patrolman  of  the 
high  seas.  Great  Britain  was  entirely  willing  that 
every  British  slaver  should  be  treated  so,  but  even 
John  Quincy  Adams  was  constrained  to  declare  to  the 
British  authorities,  at  the  behest  of  the  slaver  power, 
that  the  slave-trade  was  "  statutory  piracy  " — some 
thing  different  from  high-sea  robbery.  It  could  never 
be  allowed  by  the  people  of  the  United  States  that  an 
American  slaver  should  be  treated  as  a  high-sea  robber 
by  any  other  power  than  an  American  court ! 

Anyone  wishing  to  examine  the  original  documents 
pertaining  to  this  branch  of  the  subject  will  find  them 
in  Sen.  Doc.,  18  Cong.  2  Sess.  I.  No.  1 ;  and  American 
State  Papers,  Foreign,  V.  Probably  the  most  inter 
esting  of  our  public  documents  on  the  slave-trade  are 
No.  283,  Ho.  Rep.,  27  Cong.  3d  Sess.,  and  Doc.  No. 
115,  Ho.  Ex.  Rep.  26  Cong.,  2d  Sess. 

The  radical  trouble  was  that  cotton-growing  was  be 
coming  so  profitable  that  people  who  in  1808  thought 
slavery  a  dying  institution  had  become  aggressive  for 
the  spread  of  it,  and  so  men  were  always  found  in  Con 
gress  to  block  legislation  that  would  hinder  the  slavers. 
Worse  yet,  the  law  of  May  15,  1820,  was  thwarted  b}' 
the  United  States  District  Attorneys  who  brought 
indictments  against  captured  slavers  under  previous 
Statutes.  It  appears  by  the  records,  for  instance,  that 
in  the  United  States  District  Court  for  Maryland,  Cap 
tain  Jason  L.  Pendleton,  of  the  slaver  brig  Montevideo, 


138  THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

was  sentenced  on  Monday,  June  23,  1845,  by  Justice 
Heath,  on  an  indictment  found  under  the  statute  of 
May  10,  1800. 

Our  act  of  1819  for  the  suppression  of  the  slave-trade 
had  carried  an  appropriation  of  $100,000  for  enforcing 
it.  In  1823  we  appropriated  $50,000.  Thereafter  at 
wide  intervals  smaller  appropriations  were  made.  In 
1834  only  $5,000  was  appropriated,  and  not  another 
cent  was  given  after  that  until  1842.  Moreover  the 
money  given  in  these  appropriations  was  not  wholly 
for  the  direct  suppression  of  the  slave-trade,  the  bulk 
being  devoted  to  the  support  of  negroes  captured 
from  smugglers  and  of  that  ill-gotten  enterprise  the 
Liberia  colony. 

Nevertheless  a  treaty  in  relation  to  the  slave-trade 
was  yet  to  be  made  with  Great  Britain.  The  causes 
leading  to  this  treaty  were  numerous,  the  chief  cause 
being  the  exposures,  frequently  made,  of  the  doings  of 
American  slave-ships.  Our  cruisers  captured  a  slaver 
now  and  then.  The  Cyane,  the  first  sent  out,  captured 
five,  of  which  the  PlattsburgJi  was  most  notorious. 
The  tales  of  these  slavers,  and  the  perjury  which 
their  owners  never  hesitated  to  commit  (see  the  slaver 
cases  in  reports  of  U.  S.  Supreme  Court)  were  shock 
ing. 

But  the  feature  of  the  trade  that  proved  most  shock 
ing  was  the  use  of  the  American  flag  for  its  protection. 
Because  we  had  deliberately  and  emphatically  de 
clared  that  no  foreign  ship  should  search  an  American 
merchant-man  in  time  of  peace,  the  slavers  flocked  to 
our  flag.  Slavers  were  captured,  too,  that  carried 
blank  American  papers  to  be  filled  out  as  occasion  re 
quired.  The  ConstitucaO)  with  blank  papers  signed 


CO-OPERATION    FOR    SUPPRESSING    THE    TRADE      139 

by  United  States  Consul  N.  P.  Trist,  of  Havana,  was 
one.  (See  Sen.  Ex.  Doc.  125,  26  Cong.  2  Sess.) 

Then  came  Bux ton's  book  on  "  The  Slave-trade  and 
Its  Remedy."  It  was  an  appeal  to  sentiment  rather 
than  reason,  but  it  gave  facts  which  have  never  been 
seriously  disputed,  and  which  excited  horror  wherever 
read.  It  was  proved  beyond  dispute  that  more  than 
250,000  lives  were  deliberately  sacrificed  in  Africa  and 
more  than  60,000  on  the  high  seas  in  each  year  in  order 
to  supply  the  Americans  with  the  slaves  wanted. 

Meantime  there  were  a  number  of  matters  in  contro 
versy  between  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States, 
and  the  people  were  sensible  enough  to  get  commis 
sioners  to  consider  them  instead  of  going  to  war.  Out 
of  this  commission  came  a  treaty  of  which  the  part  im 
portant  for  this  history  was  a  solemn  agreement  on  the 
part  of  the  United  States  to  keep  a  squadron  of  war 
ships  cruising  on  the  African  coast  to  operate  in  con 
junction  with  a  British  squadron  of  equal  force  for  the 
suppression  of  the  slave-trade. 

Our  laws  had,  therefore,  permitted  the  President  to 
send  naval  vessels  to  Africa  to  suppress  the  slave- 
trade.  By  Article  8  of  what  is  known  as  the  Ashbur- 
ton  Treaty  we  became  in  honor  bound  to  "maintain 
in  service,  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  a  sufficient  and  ade 
quate  squadron  or  naval  force  of  vessels,  of  suitable 
numbers  and  descriptions,  to  carry  in  all  not  less  than 
eighty  guns,  to  enforce,  separately  and  respectively, 
the  laws,  rights,  and  obligations  of  each  of  the  two 
countries  for  the  suppression  of  the  slave-trade." 

Daniel  Webster  signed  the  treaty  for  the  United 
States,  and  Lord  Ashburton  for  Great  Britain,  on 
August  9,  1842. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

TALES   OF  THE   OUTLAWED  TRADE 

How  the  Laws  were  Interpreted— Slavers  that  would  Make  a 
Fierce  Fight — Famous  American  Privateers  that  Became 
Slavers — Whole  Cargoes  of  Slaves  Thrown  to  the  Sharks 
to  Avoid  the  Confiscation  of  Vessels — Tales  of  the  Rapido, 
the  Regulo,  and  Hemans's  Brillante — A  Cargo  of  Slaves 
Bound  to  Anchor  and  Chain  and  Thrown  Overboard — A 
Slaver  Who  Coolly  Murdered  His  Sweetheart  and  Child— 
A  Trade  that  was  Lucrative  in  Proportion  to  Its  Heinous- 
ness. 

THE  trade  being  now  outlawed,  the  tender  solicitude 
of  legislators  for  what  were  called  lawful  traders, 
that  is,  traders  who  exchanged  rum  and  cast-iron 
muskets  for  ivory  and  palm-oil,  was  so  great  that 
the  law  regarding  slavers  was  restricted  in  ridicu 
lous  fashion.  Nor  was  it  ridiculous  alone  from  the 
point  of  view  of  one  who  sees  that  to  trade  rotten 
muskets  for  good  palm-oil  and  ivory  was  degrading  to 
the  trader.  The  lawful  traders,  so  called,  on  the  coast 
of  Africa  were  almost  invariably  panders  to  the  slave- 
traders.  Says  Drake,  in  his  "  Revelations  of  a  Slave- 
Smuggler  "  (p.  66),  regarding  the  goods  he  exchanged 
for  slaves:  "Our  spirits,  cotton,  powder,  and  guns 
are  bought  from  English  trading  stations  on  the  Congo. 
We  buy  on  the  coast,  and  pay  higher  for  these  goods, 
rather  than  that  the  old  factories  should  break  up  ; 

140 


TALES  OF  THE  OUTLAWED  TKADE 

they  being  very  convenient  sometimes  as  temporary 
slave  depots." 

To  protect  these  panders  it  was  provided  in  the  con 
ventions  between  England  and  various  continental 
governments  for  the  suppression  of  the  trade  that 
"no  visit  or  detention  can  take  place,  except  by  a 
commissioned  officer  having  express  instructions  and 
authority  for  the  same  ;  nor  can  he  detain  or  carry  into 
port  any  vessel  so  visited,  except  on  the  single  and 
simple  fact  of  slaves  found  on  board." 

In  like  fashion  it  was  held  for  a  time  in  our  courts 
that  the  presence  of  slaves  on  a  ship  was  necessary  to 
secure  her  conviction  as  a  slaver.  Eventually  the 
presence  of  slave-goods  was  sufficient  to  convict,  and 
in  English  courts  the  slave-goods  were  also  considered 
good  evidence  as  to  an  English  slaver,  but  it  appears 
that  when  a  slaver  under  any  other  flag  was  to  be 
tried  there  it  was  always  necessary  to  show  that  the 
slaves  were  on  board  lest  some  harm  be  done  to  the 
"lawful  trader." 

As  to  the  effect  of  the  laws  on  the  slavers — the  men 
in  the  trade — there  is  one  feature  of  this  effect  that 
seems  to  have  been  overlooked  by  the  writers  who 
have  considered  the  subject.  It  is  a  most  interest 
ing  fact  that  from  the  moment  it  was  outlawed  the 
slave-trade  became  more  attractive  to  certain  advent 
urous  spirits  of  the  age.  For  it  need  not  be  doubted 
that  men  lived  in  those  days  whose  souls  as  eagerly 
sought  the  thrill  of  a  fight  for  life  —  whose  souls 
more  eagerly  sought  for  the  smell  of  burned  gun 
powder  and  the  sight  of  blood-splashed  decks  than 
for  the  gold  doubloons  that  rewarded  the  successful 
voyage.  The  sea  was  alive  with  men  who  had  served  in 


142  THE  AMERICAN    SLAVE-TRADE 

the  privateers  during  the  long-continued  wars,  and 
real  black-flag  pirates  abounded.  To  declare  by  legis 
lative  enactment  that  the  slave-trade  was  illegitimate 
was  for  these  men  but  to  increase  its  attractiveness. 

Still  all  slavers  were  greedy,  more  or  less,  and  an 
immediate  effect  of  the  laws  was  to  reduce  the  price 
of  the  slaves  on  the  coast  of  Africa.  Slavers,  when 
the  trade  was  lawful,  had  often  paid  as  high  as  $100 
for  a  good  negro  in  Africa.  The  price  now  went  down 
to  $15  and  $20.  On  the  other  hand,  the  market  in  the 
West  was  at  least  made  firm.  Prices  were  not  raised 
in  Cuba  or  Brazil,  perhaps,  but  there  was  never  any 
trouble  in  disposing  of  the  cargo  even  when  the  slaves 
were  reduced  so  much  that  they  had  to  be  carried  ashore 
in  arms,  like  babes,  from  the  landing  barges.  The 
price  in  the  United  States  would  have  been  increased 
by  the  laws,  only  for  the  fact  that  Virginia  had  become 
an  exporter  of  slaves ;  but,  as  it  was,  the  price  was 
already  high  enough  to  yield  a  profit  that  now  seems 
well-nigh  incredible.  The  slave  that  cost  $20  in  Africa 
would,  if  landed  in  fairly  good  order  in  Georgia  bring 
no  less  than  $500  net,  even  after  allowing  for  dividing 
with  underground  agents  there.  In  short,  outlawing 
the  trade  enhanced  its  attractiveness  in  every  way  to 
the  wilder  spirits. 

So  it  came  to  pass  that  a  naval  cruiser's  success  in 
capturing  a  slaver  sometimes  depended  on  the  relative 
size,  speed,  and  armament  of  the  two  ships.  In  the 
House  Reports  No.  348,  21st  Congress,  first  session,  is 
a  list  of  eighteen  slavers  that  resisted  the  cruisers  by 
force  of  arms.  Of  these,  five  were  former  well-known 
American  privateers.  They  were  the  Commodore 
Perry,  the  Commodore  McDonough,  the  Argus,  the 


TALES    OF    THE    OUTLAWED    TRADE  143 

Criterion,  and  the  Saucy  Jack.  Built  for  speed,  and 
manned  by  men  who  had  seen  service  in  voyages  for 
legal  plunder,  these  privateers  were  the  ideal  slavers. 
They  went  down  the  slave-coast  flying  any  flag  that 
pleased  the  fancy.  If  they  fell  in  with  a  slaver  of  less 
force  than  their  own  they  transferred  her  cargo  to  their 
own  decks.  If  they  met  a  small  cruiser  they  cleared 
for  action,  and  it  is  a  matter  of  record  that  they  made 
such  a  good  fight,  in  many  cases,  that  they  beat  off 
armed  agents  of  the  law.  Of  the  five,  four  were  capt 
ured,  but,  each  of  the  brief  reports  says,  "after  a 
severe  action."  The  Saucy  Jack  seems  to  have  justi 
fied  her  name,  for  she  not  only  escaped  capture  but 
"  convoyed  several  vessels  to  and  from  the  coast." 

The  Paz  was  a  noted  Yankee  slaver.  "  Under  the 
American  flag"  she  "beat  off  the  Princess  Charlotte 
and  killed  several  of  her  men.' '  The  Camper  down,  an 
English  slaver  brig,  of  sixteen  guns,  "destroyed  the 
sloops  Rambler  and  Trial,  of  Sierra  Leone,  and  carried 
off  their  black  crews  as  slaves,"  and  umade  slaves  of 
all  the  people  going  off  in  canoes." 

And  then  there  was  the  slaver  Velos  Passagero. 
She  carried  twenty  guns  and  a  crew  of  one  hundred 
and  fifty  men.  Having  five  hundred  and  fifty-five 
slaves  on  board,  she  fell  in  with  the  British  sloop-of- 
war  Primrose,  but  not  until  forty-six  of  her  crew  had 
been  killed  and  twenty  wounded  by  the  war-ship's 
close-range  fire,  would  she  yield.  The  sloop  lost  three 
killed  and  twelve  wounded. 

Extended  reports  of  these  battles  are  not  now  to  be 
found,  but  the  brief  statements  of  losses  show  how 
stubbornly  the  outlaws  resisted  arrest  when  they  were 
of  a  force  to  give  hope  of  success. 


144  THE   AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

On  the  whole,  it  is  likely  that  during  the  earlier 
years  of  this  century  nearly  a  fourth  of  all  the  slavers 
overhauled  by  the  cruisers  made  some  sort  of  resist 
ance  with  arms,  and  as  late  as  1845  we  have  an  account 
of  the  massacre  of  the  crew  of  the  cruiser  Wasp  on 
the  African  coast.  But  that  one  was  a  sorry  victory 
for  the  slavers,  for  it  led  to  the  just  order  to  British 
cruisers  to  give  no  quarter  to  a  slaver  that  resisted, 
and  resistance  immediately  went  out  of  fashion. 

Previous  to  that  massacre,  according  to  Captain 
Canot,  British  officers  were  known,  sometimes,  to  ad 
mire  a  good  fighter  so  much  as  to  let  him  escape — 
even  to  help  him  escape  after  capture ! 

When  there  was  no  hope  in  a  fight,  the  only  way 
to  escape  condemnation  was  to  get  rid  of  the  slaves 
before  the  cruiser  could  get  an  officer  alongside.  That 
legislators  should  not  have  foreseen  the  effect  of  this 
law  or  its  interpretation,  is  no  great  wonder.  But 
that  the  rule  should  have  remained  in  force  as  it  did 
is  a  shocking  exhibit  in  the  civilization  of  the  day. 

The  facts  as  to  the  workings  of  this  rule  appear  in 
the  brief  stories  of  scores  of  captured  slavers.  There 
was  the  case  reported  by  the  British  cruiser  Black 
Joke,  Captain  Ramsey,  for  instance,  in  the  Bight  of 
Benin,  in  1831.  Captain  Ramsey  sent  two  tenders  in 
chase  of  the  Spanish  slaver  brigs  Rapido  and  Regulo 
that  were  seen  coming,  loaded  with  slaves,  from  the 
Bonny  River  in  September  of  that  year. 

4 ;  When  chased  by  the  tenders  both  put  back,  made 
all  sail  up  the  river,  and  ran  on  shore.  During 
the  chase  they  were  seen  from  our  vessels  to  throw 
their  slaves  overboard,  by  twos,  shackled  together  by 
the  ankles,  and  left  in  this  manner  to  sink  or  swim  as 


SHE   WALKED   TO  THE    SHIP'S    SIDE    AND   DROPPED   THE   BODY   INTO   THE   SEA. 

See  page  78. 


TALES    OF    THE    OUTLAWED    TRADE  145 

they  best  could.  Men,  women,  and  children  were 
seen  in  great  numbers,  struggling  in  the  water,  by 
everyone  on  board  the  two  tenders ;  and,  dreadful  to 
relate,  upward  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  of  these 
wretched  creatures  perished  in  this  way."  So  runs 
Captain  Ramsey's  report.  Captain  Ramsey  said  after 
ward  that  he  and  his  men  distinctly  saw  the  sharks 
tearing  the  negroes  as  they  struggled  in  the  water. 

In  order  to  save  the  two  vessels,  that  together  were 
not  worth  $10,000,  from  condemnation  in  court,  these 
slaver  captains  deliberately  murdered  one  hundred  and 
fifty  human  beings. 

The  Regulo  was  overhauled  while  she  had  yet  two 
hundred  and  four  on  board  out  of  her  original  cargo 
of  four  hundred  and  fifty.  The  Rapido  had  not  one 
left  on  board  when  overhauled,  but,  two  of  her  cargo 
having  been  picked  up,  it  was  possible  to  prove  that 
they  had  been  on  board  of  her,  and  she  was  made  a 
lawful  prize. 

One  of  the  most  murderous  stories  of  captains  who 
were  anxious  to  get  rid  of  their  slaves  is  told  of 
the  slaver  Brillante,  commanded  by  an  Englishman 
named  Homans,  who  in  ten  voyages  had  landed  5,000 
negroes  in  Cuba.  She  was  brig  rigged,  carried  ten 
guns,  thirty  sweeps  (big  oars),  and  a  crew  of  sixty  men 
in  the  forecastle.  An  English  cruiser  that  attacked 
her  was  so  badly  cut  up  that  her  crew  had  to  abandon 
her.  When,  on  another  occasion,  the  boats  from  a 
sloop-of-war  attacked  the  Brillante  they  were  driven 
off  with  great  slaughter.  Finally  Homans  found  him 
self  trapped  by  four  cruisers  that  came  upon  him  from 
all  quarters,  and  there  was  no  escaping  them. 

However,  the  wind  died  away  and  night  came  on 

10 


146  THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

before  the  cruisers  arrived  at  their  range,  and  at  that 
Homans  set  his  largest  anchor  ready  for  dropping. 
Then  he  hauled  the  chain-cable  out  through  the 
hawse-pipe  and  stretched  it  around  the  ship  outside 
the  rail,  by  means  of  slender  stops,  and  to  this  chain 
he  bound  every  slave  on  board — about  600  in  number, 
piling  them  up  at  the  rail  and  securing  their  arm- 
shackles  to  it  by  strong  cords  through  the  chain  links. 
There  the  slaves  remained  until  the  war-ship  boats  were 
heard  coming  near  at  hand,  and  then  he  cast  loose  the 
anchor,  and  down  all  those  slaves  were  carried  into  the 
sea. 

Although  the  crews  of  the  war-ship  boats  had  heard 
the  noise  and  the  outcries  when  the  slaves  were  sent 
to  the  bottom,  and  the  hold  of  the  slaver  contained 
indisputable  evidence  that  the  slaves  had  been  there 
but  a  few  minutes  before  the  boats  arrived,  they  had 
to  let  the  slaver  go  free.  Indeed,  Homans  jeered  in 
their  faces  and  defied  them  as  they  stood  on  his  deck, 
but  they  had  no  redress. 

The  British  war-ship  Medina  on  boarding  a  slaver 
off  the  Gallinas  River  found  no  slaves  on  board.  The 
officers  learned  afterward,  however,  that  her  captain 
really  had  had  a  mulatto  girl  in  the  cabin.  He  kept 
her  for  some  time  after  the  cruiser  appeared,  but  see 
ing  that  he  was  to  be  boarded,  and  knowing  that  the 
presence  of  one  slave  was  enough  to  condemn  the 
ship,  he  tied  her  to  a  kedge  anchor  and  dropped  her 
into  the  sea.  And  so,  as  is  believed,  he  drowned  his 
own  unborn  flesh  and  blood,  as  well  as  the  slave  girl. 

In  view  of  the  murders  invariably  committed  on 
board  the  slavers,  it  is  not  without  interest  to  recall 
that  among  those  captured  in  1828  was  one  on  its  way 


TALES  OF  THE  OUTLAWED  TRADE      147 

from  Africa  to  Brazil,  that  was  called  the  Bom  [Sic.] 
Jesus. 

One  might  multiply  these  stories  by  going  to  the 
slaver  cases  that  reached  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court,  but  it  would  only  add  to  the  number  of  facts 
without  increasing  knowledge.  The  student  who  may 
wish  to  pursue  the  subject  will  find  all  the  stories  he 
needs  in  "  Wheaton's  Reports,"  vols.  5,  8,  9,  10,  and 
12;  "Cranch's,"  2,  and  6;  "  Peters' s,"  11,  14,  and 
15  ;  all  of  which  were  carefully  examined  in  preparing 
this  work. 

As  to  the  extent  of  the  trade  previous  to  the  Ash- 
burton  treaty,  we  can  find  ample  confirmation  of  all 
the  estimates  ever  made  by  the  abolitionists  if  we  will 
examine  the  official  reports  of  consuls  and  naval 
officers.  Captain  Trenchard  of  the  Cyane,  for  instance, 
reported  three  hundred  slavers  on  the  coast  while  he 
was  there.  Over  two  hundred  slavers  were  nominally 
owned  in  Havana  in  1818.  During  the  year  1828  no  less 
than  46,160  slaves  were  imported  into  Rio  de  Janeiro 
alone,  and  the  slavers  bringing  them  reported  deaths  on 
the  way  numbering  5,592  (see  Niles*  s  Register,  Janu 
ary  9,  1830).  Cuba  and  Brazil  had  become  the  great 
landing  territories  for  slaves,  for  it  was  an  open  traf 
fic  there  in  spite  of  solemn  treaties.  The  trade  was 
indeed  "  lucrative  in  proportion  to  its  heinousness"  ; 
the  traders  "  to  elude  the  laws  "  did  but  "  increase  its 
horrors." 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE   NAVY   AND  THE  SLAVE-TRADE 

Story  of  the  Half-hearted,  Wholly  Futile  Work  of  Block 
ading  the  African  Coast — Reward  of  an  Officer  Who 
Earnestly  Strove  to  Stop  the  Trade  —  An  Interesting 
Period  in  the  Career  of  Commodore  M.  C.  Perry - 
American  and  British  Squadrons  Compared — The  Sham 
Work  of  the  Buchanan  Administration. 

THE  first  act  of  Congress  to  connect  our  navy  in  any 
way  with  the  slave-trade  was  that  of  1800.  Section  4 
provided  "That  it  shall  be  lawful  for  any  of  the  com 
missioned  vessels  of  the  United  States  to  seize  and 
take  any  vessel  employed  in  carrying  on  trade,  busi 
ness  or  traffic,  contrary  to  the  true  intent  and  mean 
ing  of  this,  or  the  said  act,  to  which  this  is  in  addition." 

Nothing  to  attract  public  attention  was  done  by  the 
navy  under  this  act  until  1811,  when  Captain  H.  Gr. 
Campbell,  senior  officer  at  Charleston,  was  ordered  by 
Secretary  Paul  Hamilton  to  "  hasten"  to  the  St. 
Mary's  River  as  already  noted,  to  stop  the  smuggling 
trade.  A  similar  use  of  the  navy  was  made  in  the 
trouble  with  Aury. 

After  the  act  of  March  3,  1819,  several  ships  were 
sent  to  the  coast  of  Africa.  The  Cyane,  Captain  Ed- 

148 


THE   NAVY  AND   THE   SLAVE-TRADE  149 

ward  Trencliard,  twenty-four  guns,  sailed  from  the 
United  States  in  January,  1820  ;  the  corvette  Hornet, 
Captain  George  C.  Reed,  eighteen  guns,  sailed  in 
June,  1820,  and  the  corvette  John  Adams,  Captain 
H.  S.  Wadsworth,  twenty-four  guns,  sailed  July  18, 
1820.  To  these  was  acjded  the  schooner  Alligator, 
Captain  R.  F.  Stockton,  that  sailed  on  April  3,  1821, 
reached  the  coast  on  May  6,  started  home  in  July, 
sailed  out  once  more  on  October  4,  and  left  for  home 
on  December  17,  thus  making  two  cruises  on  the  coast 
in  that  year.  The  schooner  Shark,  Captain  M.  C. 
Perry  (a  brother  of  the  hero  of  Lake  Erie),  sailed  on 
August  7,  1821,  and  was  on  the  slave-coast  a  part  oi? 
September,  all  of  October,  and  a  part  of  November. 
Trenchard  of  the  Cyane  reported  that  there  were  three 
hundred  slave-ships  on  the  coast.  Perry  reported,  "  I 
could  not  even  hear  of  an  American  slaving  vessel ; 
and  I  am  fully  impressed  with  the  belief  that  there  is 
not  one  at  present  afloat."  * 

The  Cyane  captured  five  American  slavers,  the  Hor 
net  took  one,  the  Alligator  took  four,  but  three  of 
these  were  recaptured  from  the  prize-crews.  The 
fourth,  the  Jeune  Eugene,  reached  Boston  and  was 
condemned. 

In  1822,  Captain  R.  T.  Spence  succeeded  Trenchard  in 
command  of  the  Cyane.  The  Secretary  of  the  Navy, 
Samuel  L.  Southard,  in  his  report  dated  December  1, 
1823,  says  that  both  Spence  and  Perry  "have,  for 
short  periods,  cruised  on  the  coast  of  Africa  to  carry 
into  effect  the  intentions  of  the  Government.  .  .  . 
[they]  neither  saw  nor  heard  of  any  vessel,  under  the 
American  flag,  engaged  in  the  slave-trade." 

*  "  American  State  Papers— Naval  Affairs,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  1099. 


150  THE  AMERICAN  SLAVE-TRADE 

Thereafter  the  work  of  the  navy  in  suppressing  the 
slave-trade  was  confined  to  "  occasional  visits  "  to  Li 
beria  until  1839,  when  the  shame  aroused  by  the  fre 
quent  reports  of  the  use  of  the  American  flag  by 
slavers  caused  some  activity.  The  brig  Dolphin, 
Commander  Bell,  and  the  schooner  Grampus,  Lieu 
tenant  Paine,  were  sent  to  the  coast,  where  they  mere 
ly  scared  a  few  slavers.  Captain  John  S.  Paine,  of  the 
schooner  Grampus,  having  been  ordered  to  the  coast 
of  Africa  to  suppress  the  slave-trade,  assumed  that 
he  was  to  do  everything  possible  within  the  laws  of 
nations  to  accomplish  the  work.  He  found  many 
slavers  provided  with  double  sets  of  papers.  Now, 
under  the  laws  he  could  do  nothing  with  slavers 
bearing  any  flag  but  his  own.  But  England  hav 
ing  made  treaties  including  the  right  of  search  on 
that  coast  with  a  number  of  continental  powers, 
her  cruisers  were  able  to  search  almost  any  ship 
visiting  the  coast  except  those  under  the  American 
flag. 

To  meet  the  scheme  of  double  papers  Captain  Paine 
and  Commander  William  Tucker,  of  the  British  forces, 
agreed  that  whenever  the  Grampus  fell  in  with  a 
vessel  manifestly  a  slaver,  and  showing  any  flag  ex 
cept  the  American,  she  was  to  be  detained  (but  not 
searched)  until  a  British  cruiser  could  be  brought  to 
search  her.  On  the  other  hand,  every  slaver  showing 
the  American  flag  was  to  be  detained  (but  not  searched) 
until  the  Grampus  could  come  to  make  the  search. 
When  Paine  reported  his  plan  to  Washington  he 
was  promptly  told  that  his  plan  was  "  contrary  to 
the  well-known  principles"  of  his  Government.  The 
slave-coast  was  3,000  miles  long.  Paine  was  ordered 


THE  NAVY  AND   THE   SLAVE-TKADE 


151 


to  "suppress"  all  American  slavers  there  with  the 
Grampus. 

In  1842  came  the  Ashburton  treaty,  under  which 
we  were  bound  to  keep  on  the  coast  of  Africa  a 
"sufficient  and  adequate"  squadron  or  naval  force  of 
vessels  for  the  "suppression"  of  the  slave-trade. 
England  was  bound  by  the  same  words.* 

The  fact  is,  we  never  had  on  the  coast,  for  any  length 
of  time  worth  mention,  even  the  eighty  guns  which  the 

*  A  message  of  President  Buchanan  under  date  of  April  21,  1858,  to 
the  Senate  of  the  United  States  contains  the  following  tables  showing 
how  each  nation  kept  its  faith : 

The  following  is  a  statement  of  the  number  of  vessels  and  total  number  of  guns  of  the 
British  squadron  on  the  west  coast  of  Africa  on  the  1st  of  January  of  each  year 
from  1643  to  1857,  inclusive: 


Year. 

Vessels. 

Guns. 

Year. 

Vessels. 

Guns. 

1843 

14 

141 

1851 

26 

201 

1844 

14 

117 

1852  

25 

174 

1845 

20 

180 

1853  

19 

117 

1846    

23 

245 

1854  

18 

108 

1847  

21 

205 

1855  

12 

71 

1848 

21 

208 

1856. 

13 

72 

1849  

23 

155 

1857  

16 

84 

1850  

24 

154 

The  following  is  a  statement  of  the  number  of  vessels  and  total  number  of  guns  of  the 
United  States  squadron  on  the  coast  of  Africa  on  the  1st  of  January  of  each  year 
from  1843  to  1857,  inclusive: 


Year. 

Vessels. 

Guns. 

Year. 

Vessels. 

Guns, 

1843  

2 

30 

1851  

6 

96 

1844 

4 

82 

1852  

5 

76 

1845 

5 

98 

1853  

7 

136 

1846 

6 

82 

1854  

4 

88 

1847  
1848  

4 
5 

80 
66 

1855  
1856  

3 
3 

82 
46 

1849    .... 

5 

72 

1857  

3 

46 

1850  

5 

76 

152  THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

treaty  called  for.  The  table  shows  Low  many  guns 
were  on  ships  assigned  to  the  squadron,  not  what 
were  actually  on  the  coast. 

Commodore  M.  C.  Perry  was  the  first  officer  to  com 
mand  on  the  coast  under  this  treaty.  He  got  his  or 
ders  on  April  6, 1843,  and  reached  Liberia  on  August 
1st.  It  was  almost  a  year  after  the  treaty  was  ratified 
before  we  had  a  gun  on  the  coast,  and  even  then  she 
was  at  an  American  free  colony. 

Perry's  ship  was  the  Saratoga,  a  frigate,  whereas 
light,  swift  schooners  were  needed.  However,  the  Por 
poise  did  cruise  on  the  slave-coast.  The  instructions 
to  her  commander,  as  issued  by  Perry,  may  be  summed 
up  in  the  following  paragraph  taken  from  a  letter  un 
der  date  of  August  1st : 

It  is  only  necessary  for  me  to  add  that  under  no  circum 
stances  are  you  to  permit,  without  resistance  to  t)ie  extent  of 
your  means,  any  foreign  vessel  of  war,  of  whatever  force  or  na 
tion,  in  the  exercise  of  any  assumed  right  of  search  or  visita 
tion,  to  board  in  your  presence  (you  having'nrst  forbidden  it) 
any  vessel  having  the  American  flag  displayed.  But  you  are 
to  use  every  vigilance  in  examining,  with  your  own  officers, 
the  vessels  so  displaying  the  American  flag,  and  if  it  shall  be 
found  that  she  has  unauthorized^  hoisted  such  flag,  you  will, 
if  there  be  no  cause  for  detention  by  yourself,  immediately 
give  notice  to  any  vessel  of  war  in  sight  that  she  (the  vessel 
examined  by  you)  has  no  rightful  claim  to  your  interference 
or  protection. 

The  Decatur  also  cruised  on  the  slave-coast.  Her 
orders  said : 

It  is  my  desire  that  you  show  your  ship  at  as  many  of 
the  slave  and  trading  marts  as  time  and  circumstances  will 
authorize. 


THE  NAVY  AND   THE  SLAVE-TRADE  153 

This  order  calls  to  mind  a  certain  game  constable 
employed  by  the  State  of  New  York  to  prevent  poach 
ers  from  killing  deer  in  the  Adirondacks  out  of  season. 
Some  law-abiding  citizens  having  notified  him  that 
Utica  scoundrels  were  killing  deer  by  jacklight  on  Lit 
tle  Black  Creek  Lake,  the  constable  said  :  "  I'll  stop 
them  at  once."  Thereat  he  drove  as  near  to  the  lake 
as  the  woods  roads  would  permit,  and  stuck  his  card  in 
the  splinters  of  a  dozen  or  more  stumps  along  the 
route. 

"  There,"  said  he;  "that'll  scare 'em  out."  Then 
he  drove  home  again. 

Having  fallen  in  with  a  British  cruiser,  Perry  got 
authentic  stories  of  two  American  vessels,  the  Illinois 
and  Shakspeare,  that  brought  slave-goods  to  the 
coast,  and,  after  discharging,  were  loaded  with  slaves. 
Then  the  American  flag  was  hauled  down  and  away 
they  went  over  the  sea.  The  Illinois  hailed  from 
Gloucester,  Mass.,  and  was  the  property  of  Pason  & 
Co. 

In  the  instructions  issued  to  British  naval  officers 
on  the  coast  after  the  treaty  of  August  9,  1842,  ap 
pears  the  following  sentence  : 

uThe  commanding  officers  of  Her  Majesty's  vessels 
on  the  African  station  are  to  bear  in  mind  that  it  is 
no  part  of  their  duty  to  capture  or  visit,  or  in  any 
way  interfere  with,  vessels  of  the  United  States,  wheth 
er  these  vessels  shall  have  slaves  on  board  or  not." 

The  British  officers  had  only  to  satisfy  themselves 
that  a  ship  really  had  American  papers.  They  were 
even  instructed  to  manoauvre  so  as  to  board  without 
bringing  to  the  vessels  flying  the  American  flag. 

Meantime  it  should  be  noted  that  Perry  had  been 


154  THE  AMERICAN  SLAVE-TRADE 

instructed  that  it  was  "  highly  desirable  that  a  vessel 
of  each  nation  should,  as  far  as  possible,  cruise  in 
company  with  a  vessel  of  the  other,  so  that  each  may 
be  in  a  position  to  assert  the  rights  and  prevent  the 
abuse  of  the  flag  of  its  own  country." 

"To  assert  the  rights"  was  put  first,  of  course; 
joint  cruising  was  desirable  rather  to  keep  the  British 
from  American  traders  than  to  suppress  the  slave- 
trade. 

"Joint  cruising"  was  one  of  the  stock  terms  in  use 
at  Washington  before  the  civil  war.  Every  admin 
istration  believed  in  "joint  cruising"  as  the  right 
way  to  suppress  the  slave-trade. 

Says  the  chaplain  to  the  African  squadron  in  the 
years  1855-57,  himself  a  believer  in  slavery,  in  his 
book  "  Adventures  and  Observations  on  the  West 
Coast  of  Africa"  (p.  318):  "The  joint  cruising  has 
been  from  the  first  in  spirit  and  letter  dead.  It  is 
hardly  worth  while  to  inquire  upon  which  party  the 
greater  blame  rests  in  the  non-fulfilment  of  this  pro 
vision  ;  but  it  is  certainly  true  that  the  object  of  the 
treaty  could  be  better  carried  out  by  a  hearty  and 
well-understood  co-operation.  The  prevailing  indif 
ference  on  this  subject  may  be  seen  by  the  following 
statement :  The  flagships  of  the  American  and  British 
squadrons  on  the  coast  in  the  years  1855,  1856  and 
part  of  1857  met  but  once,  and  that  at  sea.  They 
were  two  miles  apart ;  they  recognized  each  other  by 
signal,  and  by  the  same  means  held  the  following 
communication : 

"  '  Anything  to  communicate  \ ' 

"Answer. — c  Nothing  to  communicate.' ' 

Perry  himself  summed  up  the  result  of  his  work  as 


THE   NAVY   AND   THE   SLAVE-TKADE  155 

the  commander  of  the  American  squadron  for  the 
suppression  of  the  slave-trade  on  the  coast  of  Africa 
in  a  letter  to  Secretary  A.  P.  Upshur,  dated  Septem 
ber  5,  1843  : 

"  I  cannot  hear  of  any  American  vessels  being  en 
gaged  in  the  transportation  of  slaves  ;  nor  do  I  believe 
there  has  been  one  so  engaged  for  several  years" 

He  deliberately  ignored  the  cases  of  the  Illinois  and 
the  ShaJcspeare.  Moreover  that  was  in  1843,  when  a 
condition  of  affairs  prevailed  at  Rio  Janeiro  that  led 
the  United  States  Consul,  a  Wise  of  Virginia,  to  write, 
a  little  later  :  "  We  are  a  byword  among  nations  —  the 
only  people  who  can  fetch  and  carry  any  and  every 
thing  for  the  slave-trade  without  fear  of  the  English 
cruisers  "  —  a  condition  wherein  the  slavers  were 
allowed  "  to  pervert  our  glorious  flag  into  the  pirate's 


We  can  now  see  how  it  happened  that  Perry  was 
honored  with  the  command  of  the  Gulf  squadron  in 
the  war  with  Mexico,  and  with  the  command  of  the 
Japan  expedition  in  later  years.  The  name  of  Oliver 
Hazard  Perry  will  be  held  in  honor  while  glorious 
deeds  afloat  are  remembered  ;  the  name  of  his  brother 
Matthew  C.  Perry  brings  the  flush  of  shame  to  the 
face  of  everyone  who  is  proud  of  the  navy's  glory  ^ 
The  system  of  patrol  was  utterly  wretched  and  Perry 
was  a  fit  man  for  commodore  under  such  a  system. 

After  Commodore  Perry  the  next  naval  officer  in  in 
terest  to  this  history  was  Admiral  Andrew  Hull  Foote, 
in  those  days  a  lieutenant-commander,  who  was  sent  to 
the  coast  as  captain  of  the  brig  Perry. 

Foote  was  a  sincere  man,  but,  being  of  a  sanguine 
temperament,  he  was  mistaken  as  to  what  was  really 


156  THE   AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

accomplished  by  the  American  squadron.  He  carried 
out  the  spirit  of  his  orders,  and  so  devoted  very  much 
more  time  to  hunting  for  British  cruisers  that  were 
accused  of  boarding  American  ships  than  to  suppress 
ing  the  slave-trade.  In  a  book  that  he  wrote  about 
his  experience  on  the  coast,  he  devotes  more  space  to 
telling  how  "the  American  commodore  argued  from 
documents  and  other  testimony  that  bona  fide  Amer 
ican  vessels  had  been  interfered  with,  and,  whether  en 
gaged  in  legal  or  illegal  trade,  they  were  in  no  sense 
amenable  to  British  cruisers"  than  to  the  capture  of 
slavers. 

Nevertheless  Foote  did  good  work  on  the  coast,  and 
his  book  has  some  good  stories  of  slaver  days  in  it. 
Among  the  best  of  the  stories  is  that  of  the  capture  of 
the  American  bark  Pons,  Captain  James  Berry,  on 
November  30,  1845.  The  Pons  had  been  at  Kabenda 
for  twenty  days  during  which  the  British  cruiser  Cyg 
net  remained  on  blockade.  But  a  time  came  when  the 
Cygnet  had  to  leave  for  supplies.  At  that  Captain 
Berry  turned  the  ship  over  to  one  Gfallano,  a  Portu 
guese  slaver,  and  at  eight  o'clock  that  night  the  Pons 
was  under  way  with  nine  hundred  and  three  slaves 
under  her  hatches. 

To  avoid  the  cruisers  off  shore  the  Pons  kept  along 
shore  during  the  night.  At  daylight,  seeing  the  upper 
sails  of  a  British  cruiser  out  at  sea,  she  furled  her  own 
sails  and  drifted  so  close  in  to  the  breakers  that  the 
natives  came  to  the  beach  expecting  her  to  come 
ashore.  However,  she  neither  grounded  nor  attracted 
the  British  cruiser,  and  eventually  she  stood  out  to  sea. 

As  it  happened,  the  YorJctown,  Captain  Bell,  was 
lying  in  her  path,  but  the  slavers  supposed  she 


THEN   HE   CAST   LOOSE   THE   ANCHOR. 

See  page  146. 


THE  NAVY   AND  THE   SLAVE-TRADE  157 

was  a  British  cruiser  and  at  once  set  the  American 
flag.  That  settled  her  fate,  for  she  was  a  legitimate 
prize  to  an  American  warship.  The  Portuguese  cap 
tain  put  on  his  hatches,  but  no  sooner  had  the  American 
naval  officer  boarded  her  than  they  were  taken  off  and 
the  ' c  slaves  gave  a  shout  that  could  have  been  heard  a 
mile." 

A  remarkable  fact  about  this  ship  was  that  she  had 
no  slave-deck.  About  eight  hundred  and  fifty  of  her 
cargo  had  been  stowed  in  bulk  on  the  water-casks  and 
provision  barrels  in  the  hold.  Eighteen  had  died 
during  the  night.  In  the  fourteen  days  that  elapsed 
while  going  to  Monrovia  one  hundred  and  fifty  more 
died,  and  eight  died  while  in  the  harbor  before  they 
could  be  landed. 

Foote's  chief  prize  was  a  big  ship  called  the  Martha. 
The  Perry  arrived  at  Ambriz  on  June  5,  1850,  in 
search  of  her  flagship,  John  Adams,  but  learned  that 
she  had  gone  to  Loanda.  Sailing  thence  the  Perry, 
while  at  sea,  next  day,  saw  a  big  ship  standing  in  for 
the  coast  and  at  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  brought 
her  to.  At  this  time  the  Perry  had  not  shown  her 
flag  and  the  stranger  hoisted  the  American  flag.  Her 
name  and  port,  "  Martha,  New  York,"  were  painted 
across  her  stern. 

Accordingly  a  boat  was  sent  to  her,  when  her  cap 
tain  saw,  by  the  uniform  of  the  boat's  officer,  that  the 
Perry  was  an  American  cruiser.  At  that  the  Martha's 
American  flag  was  hauled  down  and  the  Brazilian 
hoisted,  while  a  writing-desk  was  thrown  overboard  on 
the  side  of  the  Martha  opposite  the  boat. 

A  Portuguese  who  claimed  that  he  was  captain  pro 
tested  when  Lieutenant  Rush,  the  American  boarding 


158  THE   AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

officer,  reached  the  deck,  but  Rush  said  that  the  ship 
had  made  herself  a  legal  prize  as  a  pirate  by  throwing 
away  her  papers.  The  writing-desk  had  been  picked 
up  and  its  contents  discovered  meantime.  The  Amer 
ican  captain,  though  disguised  as  a  common  sailor, 
was  identified.  He  finally  admitted  that  she  was  a 
slaver  and  that  she  was  to  have  taken  on  board  1,800 
slaves  that  night. 

The  Martha  and  all  her  crew  were  sent  to  New 
York,  where  the  ship  was  condemned.  Her  captain 
was  released  on  $3,000  bail,  which  he  at  once  forfeited. 
The  mate  was  not  well  taken  care  of  by  the  slavers, 
for  he  was  sent  to  prison  for  two  years. 

The  farce  which  our  courts  played  regularly  in 
those  days  was  exhibited  in  this  case,  for  the  percent 
age  payable  to  the  slaver  captain  on  an  ordinary  cargo 
of  slaves  landed — say  four  hundred — was  $12,000. 
Rarely,  if  ever,  was  a  greater  bail  than  $5,000  exacted. 

And  it  is  to  be  further  noted  that  when  Foote  capt 
ured  the  Martha  he  had  uher  crew  put  in  irons," 
but  "  both  American  and  Brazilian  captains,  together 
with  three  or  four  cabin  passengers  [probably  slave- 
agents]  were  given  to  understand  that  they  would  be 
similarly  served  in  case  of  the  slightest  evidence  of 
insubordination  !  "  They  lived  in  the  cabin. 

Foote  declares  that  the  yellow  fever,  that  has  car 
ried  off  its  tens  of  thousands  of  white  men,  was  gen 
erated  from  dead  slaves  in  the  slavers  at  Rio  de  Ja 
neiro  in  1849.  He  is  right  beyond  question.  It  is  a 
fact  that  may  even  now  give  us  pause.  The  sufferings 
of  the  slaves  were  avenged  on  the  white  race  with  mer 
ciless  severity.  There  zVa  universal  law  of  compensa 
tion. 


THE   NAVY  AND   THE   SLAVE-TRADE  159 

Foote  believed  that  the  activity  of  the  American 
squadron  in  the  early  fifties  had  broken  up  the  slave- 
trade.  How  far  wrong  he  was  appears  in  the  report 
of  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  for  1860,  wherein  no  less 
than  eleven  slavers  are  mentioned  as  prizes  taken  in 
1859.  The  one  most  important  to  this  history  was  the 
ship  Erie,  captured  on  August  8,  1860,  off  the  Congo, 
by  the  sloop-of-war  Mohican,  Commander  Sylvester 
W.  Godon.  She  had  eight  hundred  and  ninety-seven 
slaves  on  board.  She  landed  those  that  survived  at 
Monrovia. 

The  number  of  slavers  captured  that  year  was  most 
remarkable.  At  first  glance  one  would  say  that  the 
Buchanan  administration  was  honestly  striving  to  en 
force  the  law,  but  the  fact  is,  this  flurry  of  activity 
was  but  a  part  of  a  scheme  to  enlarge  the  borders  of 
American  slave  territory.  Buchanan  and  his  Secre 
tary  of  the  Navy,  Isaac  Toucey,  deliberately  told 
Congress  that  the  administration  was  "  active  in  its 
endeavors  to  suppress  the  African  coast  slave-trade," 
when  they  were  active  only  in  an  effort  to  annex  Cuba 
to  the  United  States.  On  the  same  page  where  Tou 
cey  boasts  that  his  department  was  "active"  (p.  9, 
report  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  1860),  he  says : 

"Cuba  is  now  the  only  mart  in  the  world  open  to 
this  trade.  .  .  .  If  Cuba  were  to  pass  under  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  by  annexation  the 
trade  would  then  be  effectually  suppressed." 


CHAPTER  XVI 

FREE-NEGRO   COLONIES  AND  THE   SLAVE-TRADE 

England  Led  the  Way  by  Establishing  a  Colony  at  Sierra  Leone 
to  Provide  a  Home  for  Negroes  Carried  from  the  United 
States  during  the  Revolutionary  War  —  The  Enterprise 
Saved  by  the  Sturdy  Maroons — Origin  of  the  American 
Society  for  Colonizing  Free  People  of  Color — Life  of  the 
Colonists  at  Cape  Mesurado— The  Nation  of  Liberia  Or 
ganized — An  Ape  of  Philanthropy, 

WHEN  Lord  Mansfield  declared  on  June  22,  1772, 
that  the  negro  Somerset  must  be  set  free  a  new  ques 
tion  arose  for  the  consideration  of  the  ruling  race.  It 
was  a  question  of  growing  importance,  as  time  went 
on,  and  it  was  eventually  transferred  to  America, 
where  it  became,  at  last,  for  a  time,  the  most  serious 
subject  of  discussion  before  the  people  of  the  United 
States :  What  shall  be  done  with  the  freed  man  ? 

It  was  easy  to  provide  for  Somerset  and  all  those 
who  were  liberated,  one  at  a  time,  under  Lord  Mans 
field's  order,  but  after  our  Revolutionary  war  the 
English  had  a  larger  share  in  the  problem,  because 
of  the  number  of  American  slaves  they  had  carried 
away  during  that  war. 

Most  of  the  slaves  thus  taken  had  been  landed 
in  Nova  Scotia,  where  there  were  no  slaves.  The 
negroes  would  have  been  more  comfortable  in  the 

160 


FREE-NEGRO   COLONIES  AND   THE    SLAVE-TRADE 

West  India  islands,  but  thither  they  could  not  be 
taken  because  the  slave-owners  were  beginning  to  see 
that  free  negroes  were  a  serious  disturbing  element 
among  the  plantations.  It  rarely  occurred  to  a  negro 
slave  that  he  was  born  to  any  rights  equal  with  those  of 
his  master,  until  he  saw  free  negroes  work  or  not  at 
pleasure,  and  receive  wages  when  they  did  work. 
Then  he  began  to  think.  It  was  a  serious  matter 
for  the  owner  when  the  slave  began  to  think.  It 
became  most  serious  in  Jamiaca  when  the  slaves  fled 
to  the  mountains  for  freedom  and  there  organized  com 
munities  that  were  naturally  predatory — so  serious, 
indeed,  that  troops  were  sent  into  the  mountains  to 
hunt  out  with  bloodhounds  these  maroons,  as  they 
were  called.  The  troops  settled  the  question  there 
temporarily  by  killing  many  of  them  and  capturing 
more. 

Meantime  the  British  people  found  the  ports  of 
England  swarming  with  negroes  discharged  from  the 
navy  at  the  end  of  the  war.  So  three  classes  of  free 
negroes  were  to  be  considered  at  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth  century — the  slaves  from  America,  the  sail 
ors  from  the  navy,  and  the  Jamaica  maroons. 

As  a  first  step  in  solving  the  problem  an  Englishman 
named  Smeatham,  of  London,  who  had  lived  for  a 
time  at  the  foot  of  the  Sierra  Leone  Mountains,  con 
ceived  the  idea  of  forming  an  African  colony  with 
these  freedmen.  The  subject  appears  to  have  been 
broached  first  in  1783;  it  is  mentioned  in  Sharp's 
" Memoranda"  on  August  1st  of  that  year,  and  Sharp 
adopted  the  idea.  Eventually  the  Government  granted 
an  allowance  of  £12  per  head  for  the  expense 
of  transportation  ;  a  ship  was  chartered ;  a  sloop-of- 
11 


162  THE   AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

war — the  Nautilus,  Captain  Thompson — was  sent  as 
convoy,  and  on  April  8,  1787,  away  they  sailed  for 
Sierra  Leone.  There  were  more  than  four  hundred 
ex-slaves  gathered  in  English  ports,  and  sixty  Euro 
peans  in  the  party.  Reaching  the  coast  they  pur 
chased  of  a  native  chief,  known  as  King  Tom,  the  Sierra 
Leone  colony  site,  and  the  African  colonization  scheme 
was  inaugurated. 

How  the  first  colonists  died  by  the  score  from  ma 
larial  fever;  how  the  Nova  Scotia  negroes  were 
brought  there  to  die  in  like  fashion  ;  how  drunkenness 
and  indolence  helped  on  the  anarchy  ;  how  a  war  with 
the  natives  nearly  wiped  out  the  remnants  of  the  set 
tlement,  and  how,  at  last,  in  1800,  a  band  of  maroons 
from  Jamaica,  five  hundred  and  fifty  strong,  came  and 
saved  the  adventure  from  utter  failure — all  that  is  too 
long  a  story  to  be  told  here.  We  need  only  remember 
that  the  men  who  saved  the  colony  were  those  who 
had  been  too  proud  to  remain  slaves,  and  had  found 
liberty  in  the  wilds  of  the  Jamaica  mountains  until 
hunted  down  by  bloodhounds  set  on  by  the  Christian 
hosts  of  the  king. 

When  the  colony  of  Sierra  Leone  had  been  estab 
lished  as  a  refuge  for  freed  negroes  the  story  was  told 
in  the  United  States,  where  the  slave-owners  were  ever 
in  fear  of  a  servile  insurrection  led  by  free  negroes. 

Here,  then,  was  the  solution  of  the  most  troublesome 
question  known  to  slave  communities  !  It  appealed  to 
the  humanitarian  who  was  willing  to  sacrifice  his 
property  in  slaves  whenever  he  could  do  so  without 
violating  the  laws  of  his  State,  as  well  as  to  the  slave 
owner  whose  brutal  tyranny  was  the  result  of  innate 
cowardice.  The  one  was  glad  of  a  chance  to  give  free- 


FREE-NEGRO    COLONIES   AND    THE    SLAVE-TRADE 

dom  to  his  slaves ;  the  other  was  glad  to  get  rid  of 
the  free  negroes,  whom  he  hated  because  he  feared 
them. 

Still  another  class  heard  of  the  plan  with  joy — the 
indolent  philanthropists,  who  would  do  something  for 
unfortunate  people  if  it  did  not  involve  too  much 
trouble. 

Looking  the  matter  squarely  in  the  face,  a  century 
after  the  plan  was  inaugurated,  we  can  see  unmistak 
ably  that  the  African  freedmen  colony  scheme  was 
founded  chiefly  on  indolence  and  cowardice.  If  we 
speak  of  Liberia  alone  we  must  say  it  was  founded  on 
cowardice  and  indolence.  At  the  same  time  many 
upright,  sincere,  self-sacrificing  people  were  connected 
with  both  colonies.  The  tales  of  what  some  people 
suffered  to  promote  the  interests  of  the  unfortunate 
blacks  are  heart-rending. 

It  is  true  that  the  idea  of  forming  a  free-negro  colony 
was  considered  in  the  American  colonies  before  our 
Revolutionary  war,  but  it  was  not  until  Sierra  Leone 
was  established  that  anything  practical  was  done  here. 
On  December  31,  1800,  the  Virginia  House  of  Delegates 
requested  the  Governor  to  correspond  with  the  Presi 
dent  "on  the  subject  of  purchasing  lands  without  the 
limits  of  this  State  whither  persons  obnoxious  to  the 
laws  or  dangerous  to  the  peace  of  society  may  be 
removed."  (Italics  not  in  original.)  Other  State  Legis 
latures  considered  the  matter  in  similar  fashion.  There 
was  talk  of  sending  the  free  negroes  toHayti.  A  part 
of  the  Louisiana  Territory  was  considered  as  a  possible 
location.  Finally,  on  December  21,  1816,  a  meeting 
was  called  in  Washington  "for  the  purpose  of  form 
ing  a  colonization  society."  Henry  Clay  presided,  and 


164  THE   AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

on  the  28th  the  organization  of  the  society  was  com 
pleted.    The  constitution  adopted  began  as  follows: 

ART.  1.  This  society  shall  be  called  "  The  American  Society 
for  Colonizing  the  Free  People  of  Color  of  the  United  States." 

ART.  2.  The  object  to  which  its  attention  is  to  be  exclusively 
directed  is  to  promote  and  execute  a  plan  for  colonizing 
(with  their  consent)  the  free  people  of  color,  residing  in  our 
country,  in  Africa,  or  such  other  place  as  Congress  shall  deem 
most  expedient.  And  the  society  shall  act,  to  effect  this  ob 
ject,  in  co-operation  with  the  general  Government,  and  such 
of  the  States  as  may  adopt  regulations  upon  the  subject. 

The  constitution  was  written  by  Robert  Wright,  of 
Maryland.  Elias  B.  Caldwell,  Clerk  of  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court,  was  the  chief  orator  of  the  oc 
casion,  but  John  Randolph  also  spoke.  Mr.  Justice 
Bushrod  Washington  was  elected  President.  Henry 
Clay  and  Andrew  Jackson  were  among  the  seventeen 
Vice-Presidents,  of  whom,  by  the  way,  only  five  were 
from  the  free  States.  It  is  asserted  that  all  of  the  twelve 
managers  were  slave-owners,  and  certainly  nearly  all 
were  so,  while  Bushrod  Washington  was  engaged  in 
the  domestic  slave-trade  when  not  hearing  cases  on  the 
bench. 

J.  H.  B.  Latrobe,  in  an  address  delivered  before 
the  society  on  January  20,  1880,  describes  the  organi 
zation  and  the  motives  of  the  original  members  accu 
rately.  He  said  that  some  "  regarded  it  as  a  mis 
sionary  enterprise  only."  Others  "hoped  that  it 
would  lead  to  a  separation  of  the  negroes  from  what 
the  masters  said  was  an  injurious  contact  with  their 
slaves"  Others  ''believed  that  it  would  tend  to 
raise  the  negroes  of  the  United  States  to  civil  and  re 
ligious  liberty  in  the  land  of  their  forefathers.  Others 


FKEE-NEGKO   COLONIES   AND    THE    SLAVE-TKADE      165 

again  supported  it  as  likely  to  promote  emancipation. 
Others  looked  forward  to  the  commerce  that  would 
follow  the  establishment  of  a  colony  on  the  borders 
of  a  vast  continent  .  .  .  and  others  again  fancied 
that,  in  some  undefined  way,  African  colonization 
would  afford  a  solution  of  the  negro  question  in  this 
country." 

That  is  to  say,  those  who  "  sincerely  desired  to  af 
ford  the  free  black  an  asylum  from  the  oppression 
they  suffered  here,  and  by  their  means  to  extend  to 
Africa  the  blessings  of  Christianity  and  civilization"  ; 
those  who  wished  to  accelerate  emancipation ;  those 
who  expected  to  enhance  the  value  of  slaves  by  get 
ting  rid  of  the  meddlesome  free  blacks  ;  those  who 
wanted  to  promote  trade  in  ivory  and  palm-oil,  and 
the  half-hearted  philanthropists  who  sought  "relief 
from  a  bad  population  witJiout  the  trouble  and  ex 
pense  of  improving  it"  all  these  were  united  in  an 
organization  for  colonizing  our  free  negroes  in  Africa. 
At  their  meetings  uthe  devoted  missionary,  ready  to 
pour  out  his  life  on  the  sands  of  Africa,"  was  "  jos 
tled  by  the  trafficker  in  human  flesh,"  and  the  "  hum 
ble,  self-denying  Christian  listened  to  the  praises  of 
the  society  from  the  unblushing  profligate."  Mr.  La- 
trobe,  speaking  to  and  for  the  society,  says  "it  was 
well  that  all  this  was  so.  Co-operation,  regardless  of 
motive,  was  the  necessity  of  the  occasion." 

Congress  by  the  act  of  March  3,  1819,  authorized 
the  President  to  employ  naval  ships  u  to  cruise  on 
any  of  the  coasts  of  the  United  States  or  territories 
thereof,  or  of  the  coasts  of  Africa  or  elsewhere," 
to  capture  slave-ships  ;  and,  further,  "  to  appoint  a 
proper  person  or  persons,  residing  upon  the  coast  of 


166  THE   AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

Africa,  as  agent  or  agents  for  receiving  the  negroes, 
mulattoes,  or  persons  of  color,  delivered  from  on 
board  vessels  seized  in  the  prosecution  of  the  slave- 
trade  by  commanders  of  the  United  States'  armed 
vessels.'' 

The  Rev.  Samuel  Bacon,  on  the  society's  recom 
mendation,  was  appointed  both  Government  and  co 
lonial  agent.  Mr.  John  P.  Bankson  and  Dr.  Samuel 
A.  Crozer,  agents  of  the  society,  were  associated  with 
him.  The  ship  Elizabeth  was  chartered  by  the  United 
States  (Congress  had  appropriated  $100,000)  and 
eighty-six  colored  emigrants  were  picked  up  and  car 
ried  to  Boston.  These  agreed,  "in  consideration  of 
their  passage  and  other  aid,"  to  "  prepare  suitable  ac 
commodations  for  such  Africans  as  might  be  rescued 
from  the  slave-ships  by  American  cruisers." 

On  February  6,  1820,  the  Elizabeth  sailed.  A  land 
ing  was  made  at  Sherboro,  where  a  New  Bedford  negro 
named  Kizel  had  established  a  colony  of  eight  families 
at  his  own  expense.  Then  "  fever  made  its  appear 
ance  among  the  people,  who  were  loud  in  their  com 
plaints,"  *  and  with  very  good  reason,  too,  because 
twenty-five  of  them  died  of  it,  and  Bacon  himself  fell 
a  victim.  The  remaining  emigrants  went  to  Sierra 
Leone,  and  colonization  was  in  a  bad  way. 

But  meantime  the  warship  Cyane  and  others  had 
sent  several  slavers  loaded  with  wild  negroes  to  the 
United  States  for  adjudication,  and  to  get  rid  of  those 
negroes  further  efforts  were  made  to  establish  an  Afri 
can  colony.  The  Government  sent  the  war  schooner 
Alligator,  Captain  R.  F.  Stockton,  to  explore  the 
African  coast,  and  Captain  Stockton  selected  Cape 

*  Foote's  Africa  and  the  American  Flag,  p.  113,  line  18. 


FREE-NEGRO    COLONIES    AND    THE    SLAVE-TRADE      167 

Mesurado  as  a  suitable  location,  on  December  12, 
1822. 

When  an  attempt  to  get  the  land  by  treaties  with 
the  natives  was  made  the  chiefs  foresaw  that  the  colony 
would  interfere  with  their  profitable  slave-trade,  but 
Stockton's  diplomacy  prevailed,  and  a  tract,  including 
Cape  Mesurado,  that  lay  between  the  Mesurado  and 
Junk  rivers,  "  thirty-six  miles  along  the  sea-shore  with 
a  breadth  of  two  miles"  was  secured. 

To  this  site  Dr.  Ayres  carried  the  remaining  colo 
nists  who  had  gone  to  Sierra  Leone,  landing  them  on  a 
small  island  "amidst  the  menaces  of  the  natives." 
Then,  by  an  arrangement  with  a  neighboring  chief, 
they  crossed  the  river  to  the  north  and  "  erected  a 
number  of  comparatively  comfortable  buildings." 

Meantime  many  colonists  had  been  attacked  with 
the  unavoidable  fever,  and  while  this  was  spreading 
they  had  a  fight  with  the  natives.  An  English  crew  on 
a  captured  slaver  let  her  drive  ashore.  The  natives 
came  to  loot  her  and  the  colonists  helped  the  English, 
with  loss  of  life  on  both  sides.  They  saved  the  vessel 
but  incurred  the  hatred  of  the  natives.  The  truth  is 
the  scheme  would  have  failed  then  and  there  but  for 
the  courage  and  fortitude  of  Elijah  Johnson,  one  of 
the  colored  men. 

When  Dr.  Ayres,  the  white  agent,  and  a  number  of 
the  emigrants  returned  to  Sierra  Leone,  "almost  in  de 
spair  "  (as  the  society's  records  say,  but  wholly  in  de 
spair,  probably),  Johnson  said : 

"  I  have  been  two  years  searching  for  a  home  and  I 
have  found  it,  and  I  shall  stay."  And  he  did  stay. 
Neither  the  Pilgrim  fathers  nor  the  followers  of  Lord 
Baltimore  nor  the  French  Huguenots  had  worse  troub- 


168  THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

les  to  face  than  he,  nor  did  any  one  of  them  all  show 
a  manlier  front. 

Not  to  follow  all  the  distressful  details  of  the  found 
ing  of  the  colony,  it  may  be  said  that  the  inevitable 
fever  was  their  chief  enemy,  even  though  at  one  time 
they  had  to  fight  so  many  natives  that  the  balls  from 
their  nine-pounder  cannon  literally  passed  through 
so  many  bodies  as  to  spend  their  entire  force  in  that 
fashion. 

Until  1824,  the  colonists  were,  on  the  whole,  acting 
in  self-defence.  In  1824,  no  less  than  fifteen  slavers 
were  loading,  under  the  guns,  almost,  of  the  colony, 
and  there  was  a  contract  between  one  slave-trader  and  a 
native  chief  by  which  eight  hundred  slaves  were  to  be 
delivered  within  four  months.  Thereat  the  colonists  as 
sumed  the  offensive,  attacked  the  chief  who  had  made 
this  contract,  destroyed  the  slave-pen,  released  the 
slaves,  and  compelled  the  chief  to  sign  an  agreement 
to  abandon  the  trade. 

Following  this  a  slaver  settlement  called  Tradetown, 
where  there  were  three  slave  factories  and  two  armed 
slave-ships,  was  attacked.  The  fighting  lasted  from 
April  10th  to  April  12th,  inclusive  (1824),  the  settle 
ment  was  captured,  and  "the  explosion  of  two  hun 
dred  kegs  of  powder  consummated  the  destruction  of 
Tradetown." 

uThe  annihilation  of  Tradetown  and  of  the  slave 
factories  was  a  severe  blow  to  the  traffic,  which  was 
felt  as  far  south  as  the  Bight  of  Benin,"  says  Commo 
dore  Foote. 

This  much  was  done  by  free  colored  men.  In  view 
of  that  fact  the  reader  will  find  the  following  extracts 
from  publications  of  the  Colonization  Society  remark- 


FKEE-NEGKO    COLONIES   AND    THE    SLAVE-TKADE      169 

able  reading.  Said  Henry  Clay  in  a  speech  found  in 
the  African  Repository r,  Vol.  VI.,  p.  12 : 

il  Of  all  the  descriptions  of  our  population  the  free 
persons  of  color  are  by  far,  as  a  class,  the  most  cor 
rupt,  depraved,  and  abandoned."  The  same  periodi 
cal,  Vol.  VII.,  p.  230,  called  them  "  an  anomalous 
race  of  beings,  the  most  depraved  upon  earth."  An 
editorial  Vol.  L,  p.  68,  said  :  "  There  is  a  class  among 
us,  introduced  by  violence,  notoriously  ignorant,  de 
graded  and  miserable,  mentally  diseased,  'broken- 
spirited" 

Meantime  the  colony  had  been  named  Liberia  by 
the  home  society,  from  the  Latin  word  liber,  a  free 
man. 

In  1834  the  Maryland  Colonization  Society,  formed 
on  the  same  lines  as  the  original  association,  sent  out 
an  expedition  on  the  brig  Ann.  She  called  at  Mon 
rovia,  got  twenty-five  acclimated  citizens,  and,  going 
down  to  Cape  Palmas,  formed  an  independent  colony, 
landing  on  February  llth.  "  A  very  valuable  tract  of 
land  at  Bassa  Cove  was  purchased  for  the  Young 
Men's  Colonization  Society  of  Pennsylvania,"  this 
year,  and  the  ship  Ninus  landed  one  hundred  and 
twenty-six  emigrants  there,  of  which  one  hundred  and 
ten  were  "  slaves,  freed  by  the  will  of  Dr.  Hawes,  of 
Virginia."  Meantime  the  original  colony  was  widen 
ing  its  borders. 

Then  came  (in  1836)  Thomas  Buchanan,  a  colored 
man,  agent  of  the  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  so 
cieties  to  Monrovia.  He  was  a  born  leader.  He  saw 
the  evil  likely  to  arise  through  trade  jealousies  be 
tween  the  separate  and  independent  though  neigh 
boring  colonies,  and  a  union  of  all  was  effected  under 


170  THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

a  constitution  providing  for  a  government  somewhat 
like  that  of  the  United  States.  No  white  man  could 
become  a  land-owner  under  the  laws,  but  all  adult 
black  males  were  voters,  and  slavery  was  absolutely 
prohibited.  It  failed  of  making  a  nation  of  the  col 
onies  only  because  "the  American  Colonization  So 
ciety  retained  the  right  to  veto  the  acts  of  the  local 
legislature/' 

This  was  an  anomalous  condition  of  affairs,  but  it 
served  very  well  until  Buchanan,  as  governor  of  the 
united  colonies,  began  levying  duties  on  goods  im 
ported  at  old-established  trading  posts  lying  within 
the  territory  over  which  his  people  had  obtained  con 
trol.  There  were  factories  for  legitimate  trade  that 
had  been  in  existence  longer  than  the  Liberian  settle 
ments.  The  traders  having  made  the  establishments 
by  the  same  sort  of  contract  that  existed  between 
the  natives  and  the  Liberian s,  believed  themselves  to 
have  as  good  rights  to  free  trade  there  as  the  Libe 
rian  s  had.  Buchanan  acted  on  the  theory  that  the 
Liberian  Government  had  the  same  control  over  its 
territory  as  our  Government  has  over  the  United 
States. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  Liberia  had  then  no  standing  as 
a  government.  It  consisted  merely  of  a  lot  of  settle 
ments  controlled  by  a  society  of  private  American 
citizens.  So  when  Buchanan  seized  by  force  the 
property  of  certain  British  citizens  he  went  too  far. 
The  British  Government  naturally  protected  its  cit 
izens,  and  the  John  Seyes,  a  colonial  schooner,  was 
taken  by  way  of  reprisal. 

This  led  to  an  appeal  to  the  American  Government. 
It  was  proposed  that  the  United  States  adopt  the  col- 


FREE-NEGRO    COLONIES    AND    THE    SLAVE-TRADE 

ony  as  Great  Britain  had  adopted  Sierra  Leone ;  but 
we  would  have  no  entangling  over-sea  alliances,  and  so 
missed  a  chance  to  get  a  foothold  on  what  is  now  a 
continent  well  worth  exploiting.  So  a  compromise 
was  effected  with  the  British. 

After  a  time  Buchanan  died  in  the  harness  and  Jo 
seph  J.  Roberts  succeeded  him  as  Governor.  He  was. 
a  statesman  as  well  as  a  natural  leader.  He  had  been 
trained  under  the  masterful  Buchanan,  and  the  region 
under  his  control  continued  to  flourish,  after  a  fash 
ion,  until  the  evil  of  its  anomalous  position  among  na 
tions  compelled  an  organization  as  a  republic.  Ac 
cordingly  a  convention  was  called,  a  Declaration  of 
Independence  was  proclaimed,  a  new  constitution  writ 
ten  and  adopted,  and  on  August  24,  1847,  the  lone-star 
flag  of  the  Republic  of  Liberia  was  flung  to  the 
breeze. 

A  census  report  published  in  the  African  Reposi 
tory  for  1847  (p.  192)  shows  that  in  1845  the  immi 
grant  population  amounted  "  to  nearly  5,000,"  to 
which  was  added  a  native  population  of  which  "  esti 
mates  vary  from  10,000  to  15,000.  Of  these  about  300 
are  so  far  civilized  "  that  they  were  permitted  to  vote 
at  elections.  In  this  report  the  startling  statement  is 
made  that  of  all  the  emigrants  from  the  United  States 
to  Liberia  no  less  than  one-fifth  had  died  of  the  so- 
called  acclimatizing  fevers !  The  average  life  of  a 
white  man  there,  as  learned  on  another  authority,  was 
three  years. 

Ten  years  later  (1857)  the  Rev.  Charles  W.  Thomas, 
the  naval  chaplain  already  quoted,  reported  Liberia  as 
having  a  coast  line  of  ' c  over  600  miles,  embracing  a 
country  of  30,000  square  miles,  and  a  population  of 


172  THE  AMERICAN  SLAVE-TEADE 

over  10,000  civilized  blacks  and  200,000  natives"  (un 
civilized).  This  may  be  considered  a  friendly  esti 
mate. 

In  1857  the  Government  income  was  $47,556  ;  dis 
bursements,  $47,048.  Said  Thomas  :  "There  is  a  sur 
plus  in  the  treasury  of  $500 ;  but  truth  demands  the 
statement  that  many  of  the  Government  officials, 
noble  and  patriotic  men,  have  deferred  drawing  the 
full  amount  of  their  salaries,  small  as  these  are,  until 
the  country  is  more  able  to  pay  them." 

Of  the  history  of  Liberia  since  that  time  little  need 
be  said.  Perhaps  as  a  last  item  the  fact  that  it  stood, 
hat  in  hand,  before  Congress  in  1879,  begging  for  the 
pitiful  sum  of  $25,000,  will  suffice. 

The  old  society  has  still  life  enough  to  support  a 
secretary  and  publish  an  annual  report,  but  its  power 
for  creating  discontent  among  the  American  negroes  is 
well-nigh  ended.  It  was  an  ape  of  philanthropy  from 
the  day  of  its  organization,  and  the  industrial  schools 
for  colored  men  that  are  flourishing  at  the  end  of  the 
nineteenth  century  will  soon  strangle — or  starve — it 
to  death,  when  its  memory  will  be  found  worth  pre 
serving  only  as  a  warning. 


THEY   WERE    SEEN   TO  THROW   SLAVES   OVERBOARD   SHACKLED   TOGETHER. 

See  page  144. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

TALES  OF  THE   COASTWISE  SLAVE-SHIPS 

Colored  Men  from  New  York  Prison  Sent  to  New  Orleans  and 
Sold — Stealing  Slaves  in  New  Jersey  for  the  Southwest 
Market — Coastwise  Slavers  that  Lost  their  Human  Car 
goes  in  British  Islands — Madison  Washington  a  Negro 
Worthy  of  his  Name — Joshua  R.  Giddings  and  the  Coast 
wise  Trade — Extent  of  the  Coastwise  Traffic. 

WHEN  the  United  States  prohibited  the  slave-trade 
by  the  act  of  March  2, 1807,  a  reservation  was  care 
fully  made  in  favor  of  the  coastwise  trade  of  the  na 
tion  itself.  Sections  8  and  9  provided  that  no  c  ( ship 
or  vessel  of  less  burthen  than  forty  tons,"  in  the  coast 
trade,  should  take  on  board  or  transport  any  slave  "to 
any  port  or  place  whatsoever  "  under  penalty  of  $800 
for  each  slave.  A.ny  "  ship  or  vessel  of  the  burthen  of 
forty  tons  or  more  .  .  .  sailing  coastwise  from 
any  port  in  the  United  States  to  any  port  or  place 
within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  same,"  might  carry 
slaves,  however,  on  making  out  "duplicate  manifests 
of  every  such  negro,"  with  a  full  description  of  each, 
and  delivering  "  such  manifests  to  the  collector  of  the 
port,"  before  sailing.  There  was  absolutely  no  limit 
specified  as  to  the  number  to  be  carried,  nor  was  there 
any  provision  for  the  safety,  let  alone  the  health  and 
comfort,  of  the  slaves  so  to  be  carried.  And  that,  too, 

173 


174  THE   AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

in  the  face  of  the  fact  that  a  voyage  from  the  breeding 
plantations  in  Virginia  to  the  market  in  New  Orleans 
might,  and  often  did,  last  as  many  days  as  the  shorter 
voyages  from  Africa  to  the  West  Indies. 

Curious  tales  are  told  regarding  the  working  of  this 
law.  The  first,  so  far  as  found  by  the  writer  hereof,  is 
in  an  incidental  reference  in  a  public  document  quoted 
in  Niles's  Register  for  September  30,  1815,  wherein 
is  mentioned  the  fact  that  "a  young  woman  named 
Catharine  Richardson"  was  uin  the  schooner  Cyn- 
thicb^  of  New  York,  Charles  Johnson,  master."  John 
son  having  touched  at  a  British  port,  his  slave 
managed  to  get  ashore  and  found  friends  who  se 
cured  her  freedom  under  the  British  law  that  pro 
hibited  the  importation  of  slaves.  That  occurred  in 
1811. 

A  New  Orleans  paper  quoted  in  the  Register  for 
February  8,  1817,  said : 

"Some  inhuman  speculator  at  New  York  has  dis- 
burthened  the  prison  of  that  city  of  seventy  or  eighty 
negroes,  by  procuring  their  imprisonment  to  be  com 
muted  for  transportation,  and  shipping  them  for  this 
place — where  they  arrived  a  few  days  ago.  But  he 
has  been  disappointed  of  his  profit,  and  we  doubt  if  he 
will  clear  even  the  freight  of  his  cargo.  The  corpora 
tion  has  very  properly  ordered  the  vessel  containing 
this  gang  of  thieves  and  ruffians  to  proceed  without 
the  limits  of  the  city." 

In  that  day  newspapers  did  not  employ  professional 
humorists,  but  the  editors  wrote  humor  unintention 
ally  and  in  spite  of  indignation.  Fancy  sending  sev 
enty  able-bodied  negroes  beyond  the  limits  of  New 
Orleans,  in  1817,  as  a  means  of  depriving  the  holder  of 


TALES   OF    THE   COASTWISE    SLAVE-SHIPS          175 

a  profitable  sale !  If  the  editor  had  added  that  con 
scienceless  New  York  was  forcing  an  odious  traffic 
upon  helpless  but  indignant  Louisiana  as  the  wicked 
British  forced  the  odious  traffic  on  their  helpless  but 
indignant  American  colonies  the  editorial  would  have 
been  worth  printing  as  a  red-ink  broadside  to  be 
framed  for  lasting  preservation. 

A  similar  editorial  item  in  June,  1818,  says  that 
"  negro  trading  seems  to  be  actively  carried  on  through 
certain  great  villains  holding  their  headquarters  in 
New  Jersey,  from  whence,  we  trust,  the  good  people 
of  that  State  will  soon  chase  them.  A  vessel  with 
thirty-six  persons  of  color  has  been  seized  at  New  Or 
leans  for  not  having  a  manifest,  etc.,  as  required  by 
law.  She  received  her  cargo  of  human  beings  near 
Perth  Amboy.  It  is  probable  that  the  greater  part  of 
these  unfortunate  creatures  were  stolen." 

That  is  to  say,  free  negroes  in  New  Jersey  were  kid 
napped,  taken  on  board  ship,  and  carried  to  New  Or 
leans  for  sale — an  exact  counterpart  of  one  feature  of 
the  prohibited  African  slave-trade.  Mr.  Niles  did  not 
give  the  name  of  the  vessel,  but  it  was  the  brig  Mary 
Ann,  and  she  sailed  from  Perth  Amboy  on  March  10, 
1818. 

Near  the  end  of  1829  the  schooner  Lafayette  sailed 
from  Norfolk  for  New  Orleans,  having  on  board  a 
cargo  of  more  than  one  hundred  slaves.  The  slaves 
rose  against  the  crew,  but  were  subdued,  and  twenty- 
five  of  them  were  " bolted  down  on  the  deck"  for 
the  remainder  of  the  voyage.  That  was  the  first 
" mutiny"  in  the  coastwise  trade  that  I  have  found. 
Others  more  interesting  followed. 

To  appreciate  fully  the  following  stories  the  reader 


176  THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

must  recall  an  act  passed  by  the  British  Parliament 
in  1833,  to  take  effect  August  1,  1834.  This  act  was, 
in  one  respect,  the  most  notable  in  the  history  of  hu 
man  liberty,  for  while  in  a  thousand  other  cases  men 
have  done  noble  deeds  for  their  own  liberty,  in  this 
one  the  British  nation  voluntarily  taxed  itself  to  the 
extent  of  £20,000,000  to  provide  liberty  for  an  inferior 
race.  During  more  than  thirty  years  Great  Britain 
spent  regularly  more  than  £500,000  a  year  on  her  Af 
rican  squadron  and  gave  the  lives  of  many  of  its  best 
sailors  for  the  benefit  of  the  despised  negro,  and  mean 
time,  at  one  appropriation,  added  £20,000,000  to  all 
that  expense.  As  a  national  recognition  of  the  obliga 
tion  which  the  dominant  race  owes  to  all  inferior  races 
the  work  of  Great  Britain  in  connection  with  negro 
slavery  and  the  slave-trade  remains  unequalled  in  the 
history  of  the  world. 

On  August  1,  1834,  slavery  for  life  was  forever  abol 
ished  in  the  British  nation.  The  legislation  of  all 
other  nations  of  that  day  was  based  on  the  inhuman 
idea  that  mental  and  physical  superiority  in  one  race 
gave  it  the  right  to  deprive  inferior  human  beings  of 
liberty  and  to  extort  from  them  labor  for  the  aggran 
dizement  of  the  superior  race. 

In  the  year  1830  the  city  of  Alexandria,  Va.,  was 
what  may  be  called  the  Omaha  of  the  human  cattle 
trade.  Slaves  were  gathered  there  by  traders  for  trans 
fer  to  the  ever-craving  maw  of  the  Gulf  States.  In 
the  course  of  the  year  the  brig  Comet  was  loaded  there 
with  slaves  and  cleared  for  New  Orleans,  but  on  the 
way  she  was  wrecked  on  the  False  Keys  of  the  Bahama 
group.  Wreckers  carried  crew  and  slaves  to  Nassau, 
where  the  authorities  held  that  the  slaves  were  free, 


TALES   OF    THE   COASTWISE   SLAVE-SHIPS          177 

because,  as  alleged,  the  British  laws  prohibited  the  in 
troduction  of  slaves. 

The  brig  Encomium,  from  Charleston  for  New  Or 
leans,  with  slaves,  met  the  same  fate  in  the  same  local 
ity,  with  the  same  result  to  the  slaves,  early  in  1834. 

The  Enterprise,  with  a  cargo  of  slaves  from  the  Dis 
trict  of  Columbia — Washington  was  noted  for  its  slave 
barracoons  in  those  days — also  carrying  slaves  for  the 
New  Orleans  market,  was  compelled  by  stress  of 
weather  to  put  into  Bermuda  on  February  20, 1835. 

The  "Friendly  Society"  of  colored  people  of  the  town 
at  once  got  out  writs  of  Jiabeas  corpus,  served  them 
upon  the  people  interested,  and  had  all  the  negroes, 
seventy-eight  in  number,  brought  before  the  proper 
court,  with  their  alleged  owners  and  the  master  of  the 
ship.  It  was  nine  o'clock  at  night  when  they  appeared 
before  the  court.  The  master  of  the  ship  had  striven 
to  have  the  hearing  put  off  until  next  day,  hoping,  no 
doubt,  to  go  to  sea,  but  the  effort  was  vain.  He  had 
also  promised  to  give  the  slaves  considerable  sums  of 
money  if  they  would  tell  the  Court  that  they  preferred 
to  continue  the  voyage. 

Having  all  the  slaves  in  court,  the  Chief  Justice  took 
his  seat,  called  up  one  of  the  negro  men,  and  said  : 

"  Your  name  is  George  Hammett ;  you  came  in  the 
brig  Enterprise  as  a  slave,  and  it  is  my  duty  (under 
standing  that  you  were  kept  on  board  that  vessel 
against  your  will)  to  inform  you  that  in  this  country 
you  are  free — free  as  ary  white  person  ;  and  should  it 
be  your  wish  to  remain  here,  instead  of  proceeding  to 
the  port  whither  you  was  bound,  to  be  sold  or  held  to 
service  as  a  slave,  you  will  be  protected  by  the  au 
thorities  here  ;  and  if  you  do  decide  to  remain,  you 
12 


178  THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

will  become,  as  I  have  observed,  a  free  person,  and  will 
be  punished  for  any  breach  or  break  of  the  laws  of  this 
colony  ;  while  if  you  conduct  yourself  with  propriety, 
soberness,  honesty,  and  industry,  you  will  meet  with 
encouragement  from  the  whole  community.  Do  you 
therefore  wish  to  remain  and  be  a  free  person,  or  con 
tinue  your  voyage  to  the  vessel's  destined  port  and  re 
main  a  slave  ?" 

All  of  the  slaves  save  a  woman  with  five  children 
declared  they  would  remain.  This  one  family  went  on 
to  their  destination  as  slaves. 

The  expressive  phrase  of  "twisting  the  lion's  tail" 
had  not  been  invented  in  those  days,  but  twisting  the 
lion's  tail  was  much  more  common  then  than  even  in 
those  recent  years  before  our  war  with  Spain  had 
shown  us  what  a  real  and  natural  bond  of  sympathy 
existed  between  the  two  English-speaking  nations. 
And  the  manner  in  which  members  of  Congress  turned 
and  twisted  the  lion's  tail  in  connection  with  these 
slave-ship  deliveries  was  memorable. 

As  to  the  British,  their  attitude  was  admirably  por 
trayed  by  the  picture  of  the  true  griffin  in  Ruskin's 
"  Modern  Painters."  They  were  at  once  reposeful  and 
alert,  and  withal  ready  to  fulfil  national  obligations. 

International  law,  which  is  presumably  founded  on 
natural  rights,  demanded  that  all  the  property  on 
those  vessels  should  be  held  sacred  for  the  owners,  but 
straightway  there  arose  a  question  as  to  the  property 
right  of  masters  in  their  slaves.  Under  the  laws  of  the 
United  States  that  right  was  granted  [See  the  fugitive 
slave  laws].  Under  the  laws  of  Great  Britain  that 
right  had  been  everywhere  abolished  within  her  juris 
diction  on  August  1,  1834. 


TALES  OF   THE   COASTWISE   SLAVE-SHIPS         17Q 

After  the  matter  had  been  fully  discussed,  Lord 
Palmerston  said  that  the  slaves  taken  from  the  En 
comium  and  the  Comet  had  been  unlawfully  freed  be 
cause  when  they  came  within  British  jurisdiction  Brit 
ish  law  recognized  property  in  human  beings.  Therefore 
they  would  be  paid  for.  Those  of  the  Enterprise  ar 
rived  when  British  soil  and  water  were  free,  and  would 
not  be  paid  for.  This  decision  was  made  in  1837. 
From  that  year  property  in  man,  as  a  feature  of  inter 
national  law,  "  ceased  and  determined  for  ever." 

Nevertheless,  the  question  was  to  come  up  again. 
On  October  25, 1841,  the  Creole,  under  the  command  of 
Captain  Robert  Ensor,  sailed  from  Richmond,  Va., 
bound  for  New  Orleans,  having  on  board  three  white 
men  as  passengers,  with  the  wife  and  child  and  a  niece 
of  the  captain.  In  the  hold  were  one  hundred  and 
thirty-five  slaves  for  the  New  Orleans  market.  Two 
days  later  the  Creole  cleared  the  Capes  and  thereafter 
had  a  prosperous  voyage  until  Sunday  evening,  No 
vember  7,  1841,  when  she  was  within  about  twelve 
hours'  sail  of  Nassau. 

Among  the  slaves  was  a  man  named  Madison  Wash 
ington,  who  was  of  unusual  character.  He  had  fled 
from  slavery  in  Virginia  some  time  before  that,  and  by 
the  underground  railway  had  safely  reached  the  free 
soil  of  Canada.  But  when  there  he  remembered  his 
wife  away  back  on  the  old  plantation,  and  out  of  love 
for  her  had  returned  to  carry  her  to  freedom  also.  He 
reached  the  plantation  in  safety,  but  before  he  could 
get  away  with  the  wife  he  was  caught  by  the  planter. 

In  those  days  the  fate  of  these  runaways  was  settled 
in  advance.  They  were  whipped  unmercifully  and 
then  sold  for  the  New  Orleans  market.  To  the  ordi- 


180  THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

nary  negro,  to  be  placed  on  a  New  Orleans  ship  was  to 
end  hope.  To  Madison  Washington  it  brought  oppor 
tunity  for  freedom. 

At  eight  o'clock  on  the  night  of  November  7th  the 
crew  hove  to  the  Creole  for  the  night,  because  of  the 
dangers  of  navigation  ahead  of  them.  At  9.30  o'clock 
it  was  reported  to  the  mate  Z.  C.  Gifford,  who  had  the 
deck,  that  one  of  the  negro  men  was  among  the  female 
slaves.  At  that  Gifford  made  an  examination  and 
found  Madison  Washington  there.  Having  a  very 
wrong  idea  of  the  negro's  intentions  in  going  there, 
Gifford  expressed  his  surprise,  and  then,  having 
brought  him  on  deck,  was  about  to  secure  him  for 
punishment,  when  Washington  suddenly  resisted,  a 
shot  was  fired  by  an  unknown  hand,  the  mate  was 
severely  wounded  in  the  back  of  the  head,  and  Wash 
ington  cried  out : 

uCome  on,  my  boys!  We  have  commenced  and 
must  go  through  with  it." 

He  had  planned  a  mutiny,  and  the  other  negroes 
were  awaiting  his  detection  in  the  hold  as  a  signal  for 
the  assault  on  the  crew. 

In  the  fight  one  white  man  was  killed  and  several 
were  wounded.  No  negro  was  hurt,  and  in  ten  minutes 
Washington  controlled  the  ship.  Then  by  threats 
and  promises  he  got  her  navigated  into  Nassau  har 
bor,  where  she  arrived  on  Tuesday  morning,  the  9th, 
at  eight  o'clock. 

Of  course  the  American  consul,  as  in  duty  bound, 
at  once  made  every  effort  to  get  the  brig  again  under 
the  command  of  her  crew,  with  the  slaves  on  board. 
The  populace,  including  the  authorities,  knowing  all 
about  the  case  of  the  Enterprise  at  Bermuda,  were 


TALES  OF  THE  COASTWISE  SLAVE-SHIPS 

determined  that  the  negroes  should  go  free,  and  free 
they  became,  though  nineteen  of  them,  who  were 
identified  as  active  in  the  assault  on  the  crew,  were 
taken  in  custody  on  the  charges  of  mutiny  and  mur 
der  preferred  by  the  consul  and  the  crew.  But  they 
were  not  replaced  on  the  Creole. 

To  state  the  case  of  the  slave- owners,  we  may  quote 
the  words  of  Henry  Clay  when  he  said  that  the  Creole 
was  carried  to  Nassau  by  "  an  act  of  mutiny  and  mur 
der,"  and  if  the  British  authorities  sanctioned  "  the 
enormity,"  "Americans  would  be  virtually  denied  the 
benefits  of  the  coastwise  trade  of  their  own  country, 
because  their  vessels  could  not  proceed  in  safety  from 
one  port  to  another  with  slaves  on  board."  It  is  ap 
parent  that  under  the  laws  of  the  United  States,  as 
they  then  stood,  Mr.  Clay  was  entirely  justified  in 
what  he  said.  But  by  the  laws  of  Great  Britain  there 
was  no  such  thing  as  property  in  man.  "All  men 
were  born  free,"  by  her  law,  and  the  negroes  who 
were  held  in  slavey,  contrary  to  their  will,  were  jus 
tified  in  taking  the  lives  of  their  masters  in  order  to 
obtain  their  natural  right.  Having  carried  the  brig 
into  British  waters,  the  slaves,  under  British  laws, 
became  free ;  and  the  result  was  that  they  all  re 
mained  free  except  five  who  voluntarily  continued  the 
voyage  to  New  Orleans. 

It  is  perhaps  worth  mentioning  here  that  Joshua  R. 
Giddings,  a  member  of  the  House  from  Ohio,  prepared 
a  number  of  resolutions  on  the  subject  in  which  he 
sustained  the  natural  right  of  the  negroes  to  liberty 
and  to  use  force  to  obtain  it.  These  resolutions  he 
took  to  the  House,  introduced  them,  and  gave  notice 
that  he  would  call  them  up  for  consideration.  For 


IQ2  THE   AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

this  he  was  censured  by  the  House  by  a  vote  of  one 
hundred  and  twenty-five  to  sixty-nine.  Remarkable 
as  it  seems  now,  the  pro-slavery  members  were  so 
far  fanatical  in  their  pursuit  of  Mr.  Giddings  that 
they  refused  to  allow  him  to  defend  himself  or  even 
explain  his  object  in  introducing  the  resolutions. 
Such  unjust  action  eventually  did  more  harm  to  the 
perpetrators  than  to  anyone  else  —  it  did  harm,  in 
fact,  to  no  one  else.  Giddings  resigned,  went  home, 
and  was  returned  by  his  constituents  within  five 
weeks. 

Thus  the  mutiny  on  the  Creole,  a  coasting  slaver, 
became  one  of  the  most  important  episodes  in  the  "  ir 
repressible  conflict"  that  was  rising  between  the  slave 
and  the  free-soil  States. 

The  number  of  slaves  that  were  shipped  in  coastwise 
traders  is  now  really  a  matter  of  conjecture,  but  one 
may  get  an  idea  from  kindred  facts.  Thus  the  Vir 
ginia  Times,  in  an  article  quoted  in  Niles's  Register 
for  October  8,  1836,  boasts  that  no  less  than  40,000 
slaves  had  been  sold  for  export  from  Virginia  to  other 
States  during  the  fiscal  year  preceding,  and  that  the 
sales  had  brought  into  the  State  an  average  of  $600 
per  head,  or  $24,000,000  all  told.  A  letter  to  the  Jour 
nal  of  Commerce,  of  New  York,  at  about  that  period 
estimates  the  number  driven  (i.e.,  sent  South  on  foot) 
out  of  the  State  in  a  year  at  20,000.  This  would  leave 
20,000  to  be  sent  by  ship. 

Another  estimate  may  be  drawn  from  the  fact  that 
the  number  of  slaves  in  the  Lafayette,  JEJncomium,  ^En 
terprise,  and  Creole  was  near  one  hundred  per  vessel. 
Very  likely  that  was  an  average  coaster  cargo.  Now 
one  Alexandria  firm  advertised  two  ships  a  month, 


TALES   OF    THE   COASTWISE   SLAVE-SHIPS 

and  there  was  at  least,  on  the  average,  a  vessel  a 
week  from  that  port  the  year  round.  Norfolk  was  a 
port  about  as  lively,  and  Baltimore  and  Richmond 
were  not  far  behind.  Apparently  two  hundred  ves 
sels  carried  a  hundred  slaves  each  to  a  Southern  mar 
ket  every  year  from  the  waters  of  Virginia. 

In  the  Democratic  Review,  of  New  York,  for  July, 
1858,  in  an  article  entitled  "  Visitation  and  Search  of 
Vessels,"  wherein  an  argument  is  made  in  favor  of  re 
opening  the  over-sea  slave-trade,  the  editor  says  of  the 
over-sea  and  the  coast  trades  : 

"  We  aver  that  if  one  is  wrong,  then  both  are 
wrong  ;  that  if  one  is  right,  then  ~bot~h  are  right.  We 
enter  protest  against  such  absurd  definitions  and  dis 
tinctions  as  have  been  made  by  Congress." 


CHAPTER   XVIII 
STORY  OF  THE   AMISTAD 

A  Cuban  Coastwise  Slaver  that  may  have  been  Used  to  Smug 
gle  Slaves  into  the  United  States— On  the  Way  from  Ha 
vana  to  Puerto  Principe  the  Slaves  Overpowered  the  Crew, 
and  Started  Back  to  Africa,  but  were  Beguiled  to  Long 
Island — Judicially  Decided  that  Slaves  Unlawfully  Held 
have  a  Right  to  Take  Human  Life  in  a  Stroke  for  Liberty. 

ON  August  26,  1839,  the  United  States  brig  Wash 
ington,  Captain  Thomas  R.  Gedney,  was  engaged  in 
surveying  the  water  between  Gardiner's  Island  and 
Montauk  Point,  L.  I.,  when  a  schooner  was  seen  at 
anchor  well  in  shore  near  Culloden  Point.  There  were 
a  number  of  people  on  the  beach  with  carts  and  horses, 
and  a  boat  was  passing  to  and  fro  between  the  stranger 
and  the  shore. 

Apparently  here  was  a  smuggler  at  work  in  broad 
daylight,  and  Captain  Gedney  at  once  sent  a  boat, 
with  six  armed  men,  in  charge  of  Lieutenant  Richard 
W.  Meade  and  Passed  Midshipman  David  D.  Porter 
to  investigate.  They  found  her  "a  Baltimore-built 
vessel  of  matchless  model  for  speed,  about  one  hun 
dred  and  twenty  tons  burden,  and  about  six  years  old. 
On  her  deck  were  grouped,  amid  various  goods  and 
arms,  the  remnant  of  her  Ethiope  crew,  some  decked  in 
the  most  fantastic  manner  in  the  silks  and  finery  pil- 

184 


STOHY    OF    THE   AMISTAD  185 

fered  from  the  cargo,  while  others  in  a  state  of  nudity, 
emaciated  to  mere  skeletons,  lay  coiled  on  the  decks. 

4 '  Over  the  decks  were  scattered,  in  the  most  wanton 
and  disorderly  profusion,  raisins,  vermicelli,  bread, 
rice,  silk,  and  cotton  goods.  In  the  cabin  and  hold 
were  the  marks  of  the  same  wasteful  destruction. 

"Her  cargo  appeared  to  consist  of  silks,  crepes, 
calicoes,  fancy  goods  of  various  descriptions,  glass  and 
hardware,  bridles,  saddles,  holsters,  pictures,  looking- 
glasses,  books,  fruits,  olives,  olive-oil,  and  other  things 
too  numerous  to  mention."  So  runs  an  old  newspa 
per  account. 

As  soon  as  the  United  States  officers  reached  her 
deck  two  white  men  came  to  them,  one  begging  for 
protection,  while  the  other,  an  elderly  man,  threw  his 
arms  around  Lieutenant  Meade  and  held  him  in  an 
embrace  that  made  the  lieutenant  think  the  man  in 
tended  violence.  Drawing  a  pistol,  Meade  thrust  it  in 
his  face,  when  the  man  retreated,  and  his  companion, 
a  young  man  of  good  address,  who  spoke  English  flu 
ently,  began  an  explanation. 

He  said  his  name  was  Jose  Ruiz  and  that  of  the 
demonstrative  elder  was  Pedro  Montez.  No  offence 
was  intended  by  Montez ;  on  the  contrary,  his  embrace 
was  but  a  manifestation  of  gratitude.  The  queer  little 
schooner,  he  continued,  was  the  Amistad,  of  Havana, 
where  she  was  owned  and  commanded  by  Captain 
Ramon  Ferrar.  She  had  sailed  from  Havana  on  June 
27th,  bound  for  Guanaja,  in  the  Cuban  state  of  Puerto 
Principe,  but  on  the  night  of  June  30th  the  slaves  on 
the  ship  had  mutinied,  killed  the  captain  and  cook, 
sent  the  two  sailors  ashore  in  the  boat,  and  ordered 
him  (Ruiz)  and  Pedro  Montez  to  navigate  the  ship  to 


186  THE   AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

Africa.  Under  fear  of  death  the  Amistad  had  been 
steered  toward  the  east  by  day,  but  at  night  she  had 
been  headed  for  the  United  States.  So  it  had  hap 
pened  that  they  had  been  for  several  days  within  a 
few  miles  of  Long  Island,  and  had  finally  anchored 
where  found  in  order  to  get  food  and  water. 

As  to  the  negroes,  Ruiz  said  that  one  called  Antonio 
was  the  property  of  the  slain  captain,  three  belonged 
to  Pedro  Montez,  while  the  remainder,  forty-nine  in 
number,  were  his  own  property. 

On  hearing  that,  Meade  sent  Porter  ashore  with  four 
men  to  round  up  the  blacks  there.  The  blacks  on 
shore  got  into  their  boat  and  started  rowing  out  to 
the  schooner,  but  Porter  stopped  them  with  a  pistol 
shot,  and  took  them  on  board  the  schooner  under 
guard.  Once  there,  their  leader,  called  Cinque,  leaped 
overboard  with  a  belt  containing  three  hundred  doub 
loons,  and  went  " diving  and  swimming  like  a  fish" 
for  shore,  but  he  was  hauled  back  on  board  with  a 
boat-hook  in  the  hands  of  a  grinning  quartermaster. 

Meantime  Captain  Gedney  had  brought  the  Wash 
ington  alongside,  and  on  hearing  the  reports  of  his 
officers  decided  to  take  the  schooner  to  New  London, 
where  he  libelled  her  for  salvage.  And  then  the 
trouble  began. 

Senor  A.  Calderon,  who  was  then  the  Spanish  Min 
ister  at  Washington,  at  once  demanded  the  vessel  and 
cargo  under  the  treaty  with  Spain  dated  1795.  One 
article  of  this  treaty  was  quoted  as  exactly  covering 
the  case.  It  said : 

"  All  ships  and  merchandise  of  what  nature  soever, 
which  shall  be  rescued  out  of  the  hands  of  any  pi 
rates  or  robbers  on  the  high  seas  shall  be  brought  into 


STORY   OF   THE  AMISTAD  187 

some  port  of  either  State  and  shall  be  delivered  to  the 
custody  of  the  officers  of  that  port,  in  order  to  be 
taken  care  of  and  restored  entire  to  the  true  proprietor 
as  soon  as  due  and  sufficient  proof  shall  be  made  con 
cerning  the  property  thereof." 

The  words  in  italics  were  so  emphasized  when  quoted 
in  Senor  Calderon's  demand.  Very  naturally  the 
Washington  officials  were  entirely  willing  to  grant  the 
demand.  Under  our  laws  slaves  were  property,  and 
here  were  negroes  in  charge  of  a  ship  which  they  had 
taken  by  force  from  its  owner.  Further  than  that, 
these  negroes  were,  according  to  the  papers  of  the 
ship  and  the  passports  of  the  two  Spaniards  Ruiz  and 
Montez,  slaves.  Ruiz,  for  instance,  produced  a  pass 
port  issued  by  the  captain  of  the  port  of  Havana,  in 
due  form,  dated  26  de  junio  (June)  de!839,  which  read 
in  Spanish  thus:  "Concede  licencia,  a  cuarenta  y 
nueva  negros  ladinos,  nombrados,"  etc.  The  names 
of  the  negroes  followed. 

The  Spanish  words  are  given  because  of  their  bear 
ing  on  the  case,  as  will  appear  further  on.  So  far  as 
the  papers  appeared,  everything  was  in  proper  form. 

Meantime,  however,  the  negroes,  who  were  put  in 
jail  at  New  London,  had  found  friends  who  were  will 
ing  to  spend  money  to  see  that  they  had  a  fair  trial, 
were  that  possible  in  the  existing  state  of  civilization. 
These  friends  saw  the  passport  which  Ruiz  exhibited 
as  proof  of  ownership  of  the  forty-nine  negroes,  and 
they  were  able  to  translate  it.  The  translation  offered 
by  Ruiz  and  accepted  by  our  Government,  and  so 
printed  in  a  message  of  the  President  on  the  subject, 
read  as  follows : 

"  I  concede  license  to  forty-nine  sound  negroes,"  la- 


188  THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

dinos  being  rendered  as  sound.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
ladinos  was  a  local  term  used  in  Cuban  law  to  desig 
nate  slaves  born  in  the  country  or  imported  previous 
to  1820.  The  translation  was  a  fraud,  and  the  begin 
ning  of  a  shameful  attempt  to  deceive  the  people  of 
the  United  States,  including  the  courts.  For  it  was 
at  once  learned  that  neither  the  forty-nine  negroes 
claimed  by  Ruiz  nor  the  three  claimed  by  Montez 
were  ladinos.  Cuban  slave-dealers  had  imported  them 
from  Africa  in  a  Portuguese  vessel  called  Te$ora,  on 
June  12th — fifteen  days  only  before  they  were  taken 
on  board  the  Amistad.  They  had  been  landed  near 
Havana,  and  taken  to  a  barracoon  near  the  city,  and 
there,  on  June  22d,  Ruiz  and  Montez  had  purchased 
them.  The  purchasers  had  then  obtained  the  usual 
permit  for  taking  ladinos  coastwise.  But  how  it  had 
happened  that  the  Havana  official  was  willing  to  issue 
a  ladino  permit,  when  these  negroes  had  been  landed 
contrary  to  the  Spanish  law,  does  not  appear  in  the 
printed  proceedings. 

In  short,  the  abolitionists  said  these  negroes,  that 
had  been  taken  from  their  African  homes  and  carried 
to  Cuba,  contrary  to  the  laws  of  Spain,  were  not  slaves 
but  freemen,  and  when  they  were  confined  as  slaves  on 
the  Amistad  they  had  the  natural  right  to  rise  against 
those  who  restrained  them,  and  to  regain  liberty  even 
if  they  had  to  kill  two  men  to  do  it. 

So  issue  was  joined,  and  in  the  course  of  time  (1841) 
the  case  reached  the  United  States  Supreme  Court, 
where  Justice  Story  delivered  the  opinion  of  the  court. 
He  said  that  in  order  to  sustain  the  claims  of  Ruiz 
and  Montez  "it  is  essential  to  establish:  1st.  That 
these  negroes  under  all  the  circumstances  fall  within 


STORY    OF   THE  AMISTAD  189 

the  description  of  merchandise  in  the  sense  of  the 
treaty.  2d.  That  there  has  been  a  rescue  of  them  on 
the  high  seas  out  of  the  hands  of  the  pirates  and  rob 
bers,  which,  in  the  present  case,  can  only  be  by  show 
ing  that  they  themselves  are  pirates  and  robbers.  3d. 
That  Ruiz  and  Montez,  the  asserted  proprietors,  are 
the  true  proprietors,  and  have  established  their  title 
by  competent  proof. "* 

As  to  the  first  point,  if  the  negroes  had  been  law 
fully  held  as  slaves  under  the  Spanish  law,  said  the 
Justice,  "  we  see  no  reason  why  they  may  not  justly  be 
deemed,  within  the  intent  of  the  treaty,  to  be  includ 
ed  under  the  denomination  of  merchandise.  .  .  . 
But  admitting  this,  it  is  clear,  in  our  opinion  .  .  . 
it  is  plain  beyond  controversy,  if  we  examine  the  evi 
dence,  they  never  were  the  lawful  slaves  of  Ruiz  or 
Montez,  or  of  any  other  Spanish  subject.  ...  If, 
then,  these  negroes  are  not  slaves  .  .  .  there  is  no 
pretence  to  say  they  are  pirates  or  robbers.  But  it  is 
argued  on  behalf  of  the  United  States  that  the  ship 
and  cargo  and  negroes  were  duly  documented  as  be 
longing  to  Spanish  subjects,  and  this  court  has  no 
right  to  look  behind  these  documents.  ...  To 
this  argument  we  can  in  nowise  assent.  .  .  .  The 
very  language  of  the  ninth  article  of  the  treaty  of 
1795  requires  the  proprietor  to  make  due  and  suffi 
cient  proof  of  his  property.  And  how  can  that  proof 
be  deemed  either  due  or  sufficient  which  is  but  a 
connected  and  stained  tissue  of  fraud?  Upon  the 
whole,  our  opinion  is  ...  that  the  said  negroes 
be  declared  free,  and  be  dismissed  from  the  custody 
of  the  court,  and  go  without  date." 

*Peters's  U.  S.  Reports,  vol.  15,  p.  592. 


190  THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

The  narrative  of  events  has  been  interrupted  in  or 
der  to  give  the  exact  status  of  these  negroes  under  our 
laws  of  that  date,  because  we  are  thus  enabled  to  ap 
preciate  better  the  attitude  of  the  Government  officials 
toward  this  case.  The  Spanish  Minister,  Calderon, 
claimed  them  not  only  as  slaves  but  as  murderers,  and 
asserted  that  if  the  leaders  were  executed  for  crime  in 
Cuba  the  effect  would  be  more  salutary  than  if  they 
were  convicted  and  executed  in  Connecticut.  Our 
Government  officials  were  anxious  to  sustain  this 
view.  United  States  District  Attorney  William  S. 
Holabird,  of  Connecticut,  was  so  anxious  in  the  matter 
that  he  wrote  to  Secretary  of  State  Forsyth  to  ask 
whether  there  were  no  treaty  stipulations  under  which 
the  negroes  might  be  given  up  "before  our  court  sits." 

There  were  none,  but  Secretary  Forsyth  instructed 
him  to  "  take  care  that  no  proceedings  of  your  Circuit 
Court,  or  any  other  judicial  tribunal,  place  the  vessel, 
cargo,  or  slaves  beyond  the  control  of  the  Federal  Ex 
ecutive."  Attorney-General  Grundy  wrote  an  opin 
ion  saying  he  could  not  see  any  " legal  principle" 
that  would  justify  the  Government  in  questioning 
"  the  papers  clearing  the  vessel  from  one  Spanish  port 
to  another."  He  added  that  as  the  negroes  were 
charged  with  violating  Spanish  law  they  ought  to  be 
delivered  over  to  Spanish  courts  for  trial  in  order  that 
the  guilty  "  might  not  escape  punishment."  The 
President,  he  thought,  ought  to  order  the  vessel,  cargo, 
and  negroes  delivered  to  the  Spanish  Minister  at  once 
without  any  investigation. 

President  Van  Buren  did  not  go  so  far  as  that, 
but  Captain  Gedney  was  ordered  to  hold  his  vessel  in 
readiness  to  go  to  Cuba  with  the  negroes,  and  for  the 


STORY   OF   THE   AMISTAD 

purpose  of  giving  testimony  "  in  any  proceedings  that 
may  be  ordered  by  the  authorities  of  Cuba  in  the  mat 
ter."  This  was  done  before  the  court  in  Connecticut 
had  assembled  to  consider  the  case.  Worse  yet,  the 
Cabinet,  in  anticipation  that  the  District  Court  would 
decide  against  the  liberty  of  the  negroes,  prepared  to 
hurry  them  off  to  Cuba  before  an  appeal  could  be  taken. 
The  proof  of  this  is  found  in  a  letter  written  by  Secre 
tary  Forsyth  in  which  he  said:  "I  have  to  state,  by 
direction  of  the  President,  that  if  the  decision  of  the 
court  is  such  as  is  anticipated,  the  order  of  the  Presi 
dent  is  to  be  carried  into  execution  unless  an  appeal 
shall  actually  have  been  interposed.  You  are  not  to 
take  it  for  granted  that  it  will  be  interposed." 

Had  the  Court  decided  as  Van  Buren  hoped  it  would 
do,  the  negroes  would  have  been  marched  from  the 
court-room  to  the  United  States  ship  Washington, 
and  sent,  as  fast  as  wind  and  tide  could  drive  her,  to 
Havana. 

By  the  decision  of  the  Court  the  negroes  freed  were 
only  those  that  had  been  imported  from  Africa  in  the 
Portuguese  ship  Tegora.  Antonio,  claimed  as  the 
property  of  Captain  Ferrar,  of  the  Amistad,  was  by 
law  a  slave,  and  he  would  have  been  delivered  to  the 
Spanish  authorities  had  not  some  conductors  on  the 
underground  railroad  come  to  his  aid.  He  had  simply 
disappeared.  The  schooner  was  sold  for  salvage. 
Mills'  Register  (October  31,  1840)  says  she  was  old 
and  Cuban  built.  She  sold  for  $245. 

Drake  in  his  "  Revelations  of  a  Slave- Smuggler  " 
speaks  of  the  Amistad  as  a  schooner  that  belonged  to 
a  joint-stock  slave-smuggling  company  "connected 
with  leading  American  and  Spanish  mercantile 


192  THE   AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

houses,"  that  used  "one  of  the  Bay  Islands,  so  called, 
near  the  coast  of  Honduras,"  as  a  station  where  slaves 
were  landed  after  the  voyage  from  Africa.  They  were 
there  restored  to  health  and  taught  plantation  work 
before  being  sent  to  market. 

It  is  not  unlikely  that  the  energy  shown  by  the 
Washington  authorities  in  their  efforts  to  return  these 
free  negroes  to  Cuba  was  due  in  part  to  pressure 
brought  by  New  York  merchants  of  prominence. 

But  the  case  of  the  Amistad  by  no  means  came  to 
an  end  with  the  comprehensive  decision  of  the  Su 
preme  Court.  The  Spanish  authorities  appealed  to 
Congress  for  indemnity  in  behalf  of  Ruiz  and  Montez. 
Our  executive  branch  of  the  Government  was  entirely 
willing  to  grant  this  appeal,  and  on  April  10,  1844, 
Congressman  Charles  J.  Ingersol],  of  the  House  Com 
mittee  on  Foreign  Affairs,  brought  in  a  report  in  which 
the  committee  "  entirely  concur  with  the  President's 
intimation  "  that  "  in  conformity  with  every  principle 
of  law  and  justice"  the  United  States  ought  to  pay  for 
the  Amistad  negroes.  It  was  asserted  by  them  that 
"  to  set  the  slaves  free  cardinal  principles  were  vio 
lated";  and  that  "  in  defiance  of  the  law  of  treaties, 
of  the  law  of  all  civilized  nations  and  of  primary  prin 
ciples  of  universal  jurisprudence,  were  these  much- 
abused  foreigners  stripped  of  their  property  ;  and  the 
pirates  who,  by  revolt,  murder,  and  robbery,  had  de 
prived  them  of  it,  set  free." 

By  an  examination  of  the  documents  (including 
House  Reports  No.  426,  28th  Congress,  1st  Session)  it 
appears  that  Ingersoll  in  making  this  report  delib 
erately  falsified  dates,  and  built  'his  argument  on  a 
false  date. 


•  V 


STORY  OF   THE  AMISTAD  193 

The  desired  appropriation  was  not  made,  but  as  late 
as  February  2,  1858,  the  claim  was  before  Congress 
with  a  recommendation  from  President  Buchanan  that 
it  be  paid.  But  it  never  was  paid,  and  it  might  now 
be  forgotten  but  for  the  fact  that  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States,  when  it  heard  the  case,  decided 
then,  for  the  first  time,  that  black  men  carried  from 
their  homes  in  Africa  as  slaves  had  the  right,  when 
seeking  their  liberty,  to  kill  any  who  would  deprive 
them  of  it. 


13 


CHAPTER  XIX 

LATTER-DAY  SLAVE   SMUGGLERS 

Notable  Slave-ships  that  Plied  between  the  African  Coast  and 
the  United  States  just  before  the  Civil  War— When  the 
Wanderer  Carried  the  Flag  of  the  New  York  Yacht  Club 
to  the  Congo — Troubles  of  a  Smuggler  as  described  in  his 
Letter-book — A  Movement  for  Legally  Reopening  the 
Slave-trade — Dream  of  a  Slave  Empire. 

THE  most  remarkable  evidence  regarding  the  smug 
gling  of  slaves  into  the  United  States  in  the  decade 
before  the  civil  war  is  found  in  a  series  of  letters 
copied  from  the  letter-book  of  Charles  A.  L.  Lamar, 
a  citizen  of  Savannah  and  a  member  of  a  family  of 
high  social  position.  These  letters  were  rescued  from 
a  paper  mill  by  an  unnamed  writer  and  printed  in  the 
North  American  Review  for  November,  1886. 

The  first  letter  referring  to  the  slave-trade  was 
dated  on  October  31,  1857,  and  was  written  to  Lamar' s 
father.  It  says  : 

"You  need  give  yourself  no  uneasiness  about  the 
Africans  and  the  Slave-trade.  I  was  astonished  at 
some  of  the  remarks  in  your  letter ;  they  show  that 
you  have  been  imbued  with  something  more  than  the 
'  panic '  by  your  associations  North  and  with  Mrs. . 

194 


LATTER-DAY   SLAVE   SMUGGLERS  195 

For  example,  you  say  '  An  expedition  to  the  moon 
would  have  been  equally  sensible,  and  no  more  con 
trary  to  the  laws  of  Providence.  May  God  forgive 
you  for  all  your  attempts  to  violate  His  will  and  His 
laws.'  Following  out  the  same  train  of  thought, 
where  would  it  land  the  whole  Southern  community  ? 

"  You  need  not  reproach  yourself  for  not  interposing 
with  a  stronger  power  than  argument  and  persuasion 
to  prevent  the  expedition.  There  was  nothing  you  or 
the  Government  could  have  done  to  prevent  it.  Let 
all  the  sin  be  on  me.  I  am  willing  to  assume  it  all." 

A  letter  of  an  earlier  date  (July  27,  1857)  tells  some 
thing  more  about  this  expedition,  and  also  gives  a 
very  good  insight  into  the  way  President  Buchanan's 
administration  got  on  with  the  slave  smugglers.  The 
letter  was  written  to  Howell  Cobb,  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury.  It  says : 

"  I  am  loath  to  trouble  you  again,  but  your  damned 
sap-head  of  a  collector  refuses  to  do  anything.  .  .  . 
He  detained  my  vessel  eight  days  after  she  was  ready 
for  sea,  and  after  she  had  applied  for  her  clearance 
papers.  Mr.  Boston  said  she  was  not  '  seized,'  but 
merely  '  detained.'  He  said  the  department  would 
respond  to  any  demand  I  might  make  for  damages, 
etc.  The  District  Attorney  and  all  the  lawyers  to 
whom  he  applied  for  advice  told  him  that  there  was 
nothing  to  cause  suspicion  to  attach  to  the  vessel." 

A  bill  for  damages  follows :  "  Eight  days'  detention 
at  $150  per  day,  $1,200;  wharfage,  etc.,  $120;  total, 
$1,320."  It  is  not  unlikely  that  the  bill  was  paid. 
Then  comes  this  frank  statement : 

"  I  did  not,  in  my  other  communication,  disclaim 
any  intention  of  embarking  in  the  Slave-trade,  nor  did 


196  ™E   AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

I  say  anything  to  warrant  you  in  supposing  I  was  not 
engaged  in  it.  I  simply  declared  that  there  was  noth 
ing  on  board  except  what  was  on  the  manifest,  and 
that  I  insist  there  was  nothing  suspicious  on  it.  I  will 
now  say,  as  the  vessel  is  1,000  miles  from  here,  that 
she  was  as  unfit  for  a  voyage  to  import  negroes  as  any 
vessel  in  port.  .  .  .  What  she  may  hereafter  do 
is  another  matter.  .  .  .  John  Boston  had  her  de 
tained  because  he  says  he  knew  she  would  be  engaged 
in  the  trade,  and  had  heard  that  from  men  who  con 
fessed  that  they  were  eavesdroppers,  who  hung  around 
my  windows  to  listen  to  all  conversations  that  took 
place.  .  .  .  I  am  coming  on  to  bore  you  in  person 
unless  you  will  yield  to  my  short  epistles." 

That  to  an  officer  who  had  sworn  he  would  execute 
the  laws ! 

We  find  in  a  letter  of  November  7th,  of  the  same 
year,  to  N.  C.  Trowbridge,  of  New  Orleans,  that  the 
venture  went  awry.  The  letter  reads  : 

"  I  am  truly  glad  to  find  that  Grant  [the  slave  cap 
tain]  is  at  least  honest.  He  has  acted  badly  and  sac 
rificed  our  interest  most  shamefully.  His  clearance 
papers  would  have  taken  him  anywhere  he  wanted  to 
go,  unmolested.  .  .  *  He  knew  the  vessel  was 
fitted  for  nothing  else  but  the  trade,  and  ought  to 
have  known  we  would  want  to  send  her  back.  .  .  . 
Why  did  he  not  go  to  the  Coast?  He  knew  before  he 
undertook  the  command  that  there  were  armed  vessels 
on  the  Coast,  and  a  number  of  them.  He  ought  to  have 
known  that  he  was  running  no  risk — that  the  cap 
tain  and  crew  are  always  discharged.  The  captain  of 
the  Albert  Devereux  was  here  the  other  day.  The 
British  cruisers  even  let  him  take  his  gold.  If  Grant 


LATTER-DAY   SLAVE   SMUGGLERS  197 

had  been  equal  to  the  emergency  we  would  all  have 
been  easy  in  money  matters." 

A  letter  of  December  23,  1857,  to  Theodore  Johnson, 
of  New  Orleans,  says:  "In  reference  to  Grant,  dis 
charge  him,  pay  him  nothing,  and  hope  with  me  that 
he  will  speedily  land  in  hell." 

Much  talk  of  Lamar' s  financial  straits  follows,  and 
then  we  learn  the  name  of  the  vessel.  "  Something 
ought  to  be  done  at  once  with  the  RawUns,"  he  says. 

A  letter  dated  three  days  later  invites  L.  Viana,  of 
158  Pearl  Street,  New  York,  to  join  in  the  slave-smug 
gling  business,  and  then  we  learn  that  "  Captain  Will 
iam  Ross  Postell  ...  a  Gent,  reliable  in  every 
way,  and  a  thorough  sailor  and  navigator,"  was  se 
cured  to  take  command  of  the  E.  A.  Rawlins.  An 
era  of  prosperity  came  to  the  smugglers,  it  seems,  for 
the  letters  show  that,  in  addition  to  the  Rawtins,  the 
Richard  Cobden  and  the  notorious  yacht  Wanderer 
were  put  into  the  trade.  Lamar  even  contemplated 
buying  a  steamer.  Here  is  what  he  wrote  about  the 
steamer  on  May  24,  1858,  to  "Thomas  Barrett,  Esq.. 
Augusta,"  italics  as  in  the  original : 

I  have  in  contemplation,  if  I  can  raise  the  necessary 
amount  of  money,  the  fitting  out  of  an  expedition  to  go  to 
the  coast  of  Africa  for  a  cargo  of  African  apprentices  to  be 
bound  for  the  term  of  their  natural  lives,  and  would  like  your 
co-operation.  No  subscription  will  be  received  for  a  less 
amount  than  $5,000.  The  amount  to  be  raised  is  f  300,000. 
I  will  take  $20,000  of  the  stock  and  go  myself.  I  propose  to 
purchase  the  "  Vigo,"  an  iron  screw  steamer  of  1,750  tons,  now 
in  Liverpool  for  sale  at  £30,000  cash.  She  cost  £75,000.  G. 
B.  Lamar  can  give  you  a  description  of  her.  .  .  .  She  is 
as  good  as  new,  save  her  boilers,  and  they  can  be  used  for 
several  months.  If  I  can  buy  her  I  will  put  six  Paixhan 


198  TIIE   AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

guns  on  deck  and  man  her  with  as  good  men  as  can  be  found 
in  the  South.  The  fighting  men  will  all  be  stockholders  and 
gentlemen  some  of  whom  are  known  to  you,  if  not  person 
ally,  by  reputation.  My  estimate  runs  thus  : 

Steamer  $150,000  ;  repairs,  guns,  small  arms, 

coal,  etc.,  $50,000 $200,000 

Supplies,  $25,000  ;  money  for  purchase  of 

cargo,  $75,000 100,000 


$300,000 

I  have,  as  you  know,  a  vessel  now  afloat,  but  it  is,  in  my 
mind,  extremely  doubtful  whether  she  gets  in  safely,  as  she 
had  to  wait  on  the  Coast  until  her  cargo  could  be  collected. 
If  she  ever  gets  clear  of  the  Coast,  they  can't  catch  her.  She 
ought  to  be  due  in  from  ten  to  thirty  days.  I  have  another 
now  ready  to  sail  which  has  orders  to  order  a  cargo  of  1,000 
or  1,200  to  be  in  readiness  the  1st  of  September,  but  to  be 
kept,  if  necessary,  until  the  1st  of  October — which  I  intend  for 
the  steamer — so  that  no  delay  may  occur.  With  her  I  can 
make  the  voyage  there  and  back,  including  all  detentions,  bad 
weather,  if  I  encounter  it,  etc.,  in  ninety  days,  certain  and 
sure  ;  and  the  negroes  can  be  sold  as  fast  as  landed  at  $650 
per  head.  I  can  contract  for  them  "  to  arrive  "  at  that  figure, 
cash.  The  "  Vigo  "  can  bring  2,000  with  ease  and  comfort,  and 
I  apprehend  no  difficulty  or  risk,  save  shipwreck,  and  that 
you  can  insure  against.  I  can  get  one  of  the  first  lieutenants 
in  the  navy  to  go  out  in  command,  and  we  can  whip  any 
thing  if  attacked,  that  is  on  that  station,  either  English  or 
American.  But  I  would  not  propose  to  fight  ;  for  the  "  Vigo  " 
can  steam  eleven  knots,  which  would  put  us  out  of  the  way 
of  any  of  the  cruisers. 

In  an  estimate  of  the  steamer's  profits  sent  to 
William  Roundtree,  of  Nashville,  Tenn.,  Lamar  placed 
the  cost  at  $300,000,  and  the  income— "1,200  negroes 
at  $650,  $780,000,  which  leaves  net  profit  and  steamer 
on  hand,  $480,000.'' 


LATTER-DAY   SLAVE   SMUGGLERS  199 

In  some  way  this  scheme  fell  down ;  probably  he 
could  not  raise  the  capital.  But  it  is  worth  telling,  as 
showing  the  drift  of  affairs  in  our  slave  territory  at 
that  time. 

As  to  his  proposal  to  introduce  Africans  as  appren 
tices  for  life,  to  evade  the  letter  of  the  law,  he  said  in  a 
letter  to  Secretary  Cobb,  in  1858:  "  I  would  land  the 
cargo  on  the  levee  in  New  Orleans  and  test  the  legal 
ity  of  the  matter  in  the  courts  of  the  United  States." 
And  because  Cobb  refused  to  sanction  such  a  plan, 
Lamar  asked  sternly  in  another  letter,  "  Has  Northern 
public  opinion,  then,  acquired  the  force  of  law?  " 

The  yacht  Wanderer,  of  which  Lamar  makes  men 
tion,  was  without  doubt  the  most  notable  slave-smug 
gler  known  to  the  trade,  and  her  story  is  therefore 
well  worth  giving  here. 

According  to  the  records  of  the  New  York  Yacht 
Club,  the  Wanderer  was  built  by  James  G.  Baylis,  at 
Port  Jefferson,  L.  I.,  for  Mr.  J.  D.  Johnson,  a  wealthy 
member  of  the  club.  She  was  launched  in  June,  1857. 
Her  dimensions  were  :  Length  over  all,  104  feet ;  keel, 
95 ;  beam,  26.5 ;  depth  of  hold,  10.5  ;  draught,  10.5. 
Her  mainmast  was  84  feet  long  and  its  topmast  35. 
The  main  boom  was  65  feet  long,  and  its  gaff  and  the 
main  gaff  35.  The  bowsprit  was  23  feet  outboard. 

Captain  Thomas  Hawkins  superintended  her  while 
on  the  blocks,  and  "to  hear  him  tell  it,"  said  one  of 
his  friends  to  me,  "  j^ou'd  think  she  could  fly  instead 
of  sailing."  He  added :  "She  was,  however,  a  very 
fast  schooner."  A  beautiful  painting  of  the  Wan 
derer  hangs  in  the  Yacht  Club's  reception  room  at 
this  writing  (1900). 

Mr.  Johnson  sold  the  schooner  to  Captain  W.  C. 


200  THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

Corrie,  who  was  elected  a  member  of  the  New  York 
Yacht  Club  on  May  29,  1858,  and  he  sailed  for  the 
South  with  her  at  once.  Under  the  rules  of  the  club 
Corrie  was  captain  of  the  yacht.  Her  sailing  master 
was  a  brother  of  the  late  Admiral  Semmes,  of  the  Con 
federate  navy.  Captain  Corrie  took  her  to  Charles 
ton,  and  there  cleared  out  for  Trinidad,  as  if  on  a 
pleasure  voyage,  although,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  she 
had  a  slaver  outfit  in  her  hold.  Captain  Egbert  Farn- 
ham,  a  man  of  an  adventurous  career — he  had  been  a 
famous  overland  rider  in  his  time,  and,  it  is  said,  one 
of  Walker's  Nicaragua  filibusters — went  along  as  su 
percargo. 

From  Trinidad  the  Wanderer  went  to  St.  Helena, 
and  thence  to  the  Congo  River.  She  was  still  flying 
the  American  flag  and  that  of  the  New  York  Yacht 
Club,  of  course,  and  when  the  British  war -ship  Me 
dusa  was  found  cruising  for  slavers  on  the  Congo 
coast,  Captain  Corrie  ran  alongside  and  remained 
with  her  several  days  (according  to  the  newspapers), 
during  which  he  entertained  the  British  officers  with 
the  best  he  had,  and  was  in  turn  entertained  in  royal 
fashion  on  the  war-ship.  Places  of  interest  ashore 
were  visited  in  company.  There  was  a  race  with  a 
British  yacht  off  the  coast,  in  which,  of  course,  the 
Wanderer  won  handsomely. 

Farnham  told  the  reporters,  after  his  return,  that  on 
one  occasion,  after  the  wine  had  mellowed  the  British 
officers  sufficiently,  they  were  invited  to  inspect  the 
Wanderer  to  see  whether  she  was  not  a  slaver,  whereat 
the  whole  party  laughed  joyously.  The  idea  that  such 
a  magnificent  floating  palace  as  the  Wanderer  was  to 
be  used  as  a  slaver  did  seem  extremely  ridiculous  to 


LATTER-DAY   SLAVE   SMUGGLERS 

them.  Then  the  British  sailed  away  and  the  Wan 
derer  slipped  away  up  the  Congo  to  the  barracoons. 

The  owners  of  the  Wanderer,  besides  Corrie,  were 
Charles  A.  L.  Lamar,  of  Savannah  ;  N.  C.  Trowbridge, 
of  New  Orleans  ;  Captain  A.  C.  McGhee,  of  Columbus, 
Ga.  ;  Richard  Dickerson,  of  Richmond,  Va.,  and  Ben 
jamin  Davis,  of  Charleston,  S.  C.  Captain  McGhee,  in 
an  interview  with  a  correspondent  of  the  New  York 
Sun,  printed  four  or  five  years  ago,  said  that  the  cargo 
purchased  consisted  chiefly  of  young  negroes  from  thir 
teen  to  eighteen  years  of  age,  and  that  seven  hundred 
and  fifty  were  taken  on  board. 

That  she  got  clear  of  the  slave-coast  with  a  full  load 
is  beyond  doubt.  The  exact  date  of  her  arrival  on  the 
Georgia  coast  is  not  known,  but  it  was  not  far  from 
December  2,  1858.  The  first  mention  of  the  matter  in 
print  is  found  in  the  Savannah  Republican  of  Decem 
ber  llth  of  that  year,  wherein  it  is  asserted  that  her 
cargo  was  landed  "in  the  neighborhood  of  St.  An 
drews  Sound,  near  Brunswick,"  and  that  "part  of 
her  cargo  was  subsequently  sent  up  Saltilla  River  on 
board  a  steamer." 

The  Savannah  Republican  said  a  few  days  later  that 
it  had  heard  "  that  the  slaves  were  landed  on  Jekyl 
Island,  for  which  privilege,  it  is  said,  the  negro  traders 
paid  $15,000,  and  that  a  steamboat  from  this  city  went 
down  and  brought  one  hundred  and  fifty  of  them  past 
Savannah  and  up  the  river  to  a  plantation  from  whence 
they  were  scattered  over  the  country." 

Captain  McGhee  tells  how  this  was  done  : 

uThe  most  difficult  part  of  the  voyage  was  to  get 
into  port.  The  only  way  to  enter  the  mouth  of  the 
Savannah  River  was  under  the  black  muzzles  of  the 


202  THE   AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

guns  of  the  fort,  and  it  would  have  been  madness  to 
attempt  to  enter  with  that  contraband  cargo  in  open 
daylight.  Instead  Captain  Semmes  crept  into  the 
mouth  of  the  Great  Ogeechee  by  night  and  ascended 
the  river  to  the  big  swamp,  and  there  lay  concealed 
while  he  communicated  with  Lamar  in  Savannah. 

"Lamar  thereupon  announced  that  he  was  going  to 
give  a  grand  ball  in  honor  of  the  officers  and  garrison 
of  the  fort,  and  insisted  that  the  soldiers,  as  well  as 
their  superiors,  should  partake  of  the  good  cheer. 
When  the  gayety  was  at  its  height  the  Wanderer  stole 
into  the  river  and  passed  the  guns  of  the  fort  unchal 
lenged  in  the  darkness  and  made  her  way  to  Lamar' s 
plantations,  some  distance  up  the  river.  The  human 
cargo  was  soon  disembarked  and  placed  under  the 
charge  of  the  old  rice-field  negroes,  who  were  nearly 
as  savage  as  the  new  importations." 

According,  however,  to  a  letter  written  by  Lamar 
to  N.  C.  Trowbridge,  of  New  Orleans,  on  December 
18th,  the  smugglers  were  in  trouble  enough  in  spite 
of  successful  tricks,  for  United  States  District  At 
torney  Ganahl  had  moved  in  the  matter  at  once,  and 
Lamar  wrote : 

I  returned  from  Augusta  this  morning.  I  distributed  the 
negroes  as  best  I  could  ;  but  I  tell  you  things  are  in  a  hell  of 
a  fix  ;  no  certainty  about  anything.  The  Government  has  em 
ployed  H.  E.  Jackson  to  assist  in  the  prosecution,  and  are 
determined  to  press  matters  to  the  utmost  extremity.  The 
yacht  has  been  seized.  The  examination  commenced  to-day 
and  will  continue  thirty  days,  at  the  rate  they  are  going  on. 
They  have  all  the  pilots  and  men  who  took  the  yacht  to  Bruns 
wick  here  to  testify.  She  will  be  lost  certain  and  sure,  if  not 
the  negroes.  Dr.  Hazlehurst  testified  that  he  attended  the 
negroes  and  swore  they  were  Africans,  and  of  recent  importa- 


LATTER-DAY   SLAVE   SMUGGLERS  203 

tion.  ...  I  don't  calculate  to  get  a  new  dollar  for  an  old 
one.  All  these  men  must  be  bribed.  I  must  be  paid  for  my 
time,  trouble,  and  advances.  .  .  .  Six  of  those  who  were 
left  at  Mont's,  who  were  sick,  died  yesterday.  I  think  the 
whole  of  them  now  sick  will  die.  They  are  too  enfeebled  to 
administer  medicine  to.  I  am  paying  fifty  cents  a  day  each 
for  all  those  I  took  up  the  country.  It  was  the  best  I  could 
do.  ...  I  tell  you  hell  is  to  pay.  I  don't  think  they  will 
discharge  the  men,  but  turn  them  over  for  trial. 

Nor  were  his  troubles  solely  with  the  Government 
officials.  In  a  letter  to  Theodore  Johnson,  of  New  Or 
leans,  he  says  that  some  of  the  planters  with  whom  the 
negroes  were  left  for  safe  keeping  were  proving  recre 
ant  to  the  trust.  He  says  : 

I  am  astonished  at  what  Governor  Phiniz  has  written  me. 
.  .  .  The  idea  of  a  man's  taking  negroes  to  keep  at  fifty 
cents  a  head  per  day,  and  then  refusing  to  give  them  up  when 
demanded,  simply  because  the  law  does  not  recognize  them 
as  property,  is  worse  than  stealing. 

A  letter  from  Lamar  to  "  C.  C.  Cook,  Esq.,  Blakely, 
Georgia,"  is  of  interest  here,  though  I  am  not  able  to 
say  definitely  that  it  refers  to  the  Wanderer,  for  Lamar 
had  two  other  slavers  afloat.  The  italics  are  in  the 
original : 

You  are  aware  that  it  is  a  risky  business.  I  lost  two  out  of 
three.  To  be  sure,  at  first  knew  nothing  of  the  business.  I 
have  learned  something  since,  and  I  hope  I  can  put  my  infor 
mation  to  some  account.  I  have  been  in  for  "  grandeur,"  and 
been  fighting  for  a  principle.  Now  I  am  in  for  the  dollars. 

Meantime  arrests  had  been  made.  Captain  Corrie 
was  taken  in  custody  on  January  22,  1859.  The  date 
of  Lamar' s  arrest  is  not  recorded,  as  far  as  I  can 
learn. 


204  THE   AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

From  a  letter  addressed  to  "  Captain  N.  I).  Brown," 
who  was  apparently  one  of  the  men  under  arrest,  it 
appears  that  while  in  trouble  himself,  Lamar  still 
stood  by  some  of  his  crew,  for  he  says  : 

Your  attorneys  will  visit  you  before  the  trial.  If  a  true 
bill  be  found  against  you  by  the  grand  jury,  it  will  be  done 
upon  the  evidence  of  Club  and  Harris,  and  of  course  they  will 
testify  to  the  same  thing.  In  that  case  I  think  you  all  ought 
to  leave,  and  I  will  make  arrangements  for  you  to  do  so,  if  you 
agree  with  me.  I  have  offered  Club  and  Harris  $5,000  not  to 
testify ;  but  the  Government  is  also  trying  to  buy  them. 
.  .  .  I  am  afraid  they  will  convict  me,  but  my  case  is  only 
seven  years  and  a  fine.  If  I  find  they  are  likely  to  do  so,  I 
shall  go  to  Cuba  until  I  make  some  compromise  with  the 
Government. 

The  distribution  of  the  negroes  was  accomplished  in 
the  meantime.  Captain  Frazier,  of  the  river-steamer 
Augusta,  testified  that  he  carried  one  hundred  and 
seventy-two  of  the  negroes  from  Jekyl  Island  to  a 
plantation  lying  two  miles  below  Augusta.  It  is  likely 
that  the  ball  mentioned  by  Captain  McGhee  was  given 
when  this  cargo  was  taken  up  the  river  past  Savannah 
to  Augusta. 

Meantime  the  news  had  created  a  deal  of  excite 
ment  in  every  part  of  the  country.  Congress  took  up 
the  matter.  On  motion  of  Senator  Henry  Wilson  the 
Senate  called  on  President  Buchanan  for  all  the  facts 
that  the  Government  had.  The  document  containing 
the  President's  reply  is  a  leaflet.  He  said:  "I  concur 
with  the  Attorney-General  [J.  S.  Black]  in  the  opinion 
that  it  would  be  incompatible  with  the  public  interest 
at  this  time  to  communicate  the  correspondence  with 
the  officers  of  the  Government  at  Savannah,  or  the 


LATTER-DAY   SLAVE   SMUGGLERS  205 

instructions  which  they  have  received."  He  added  a 
promise  to  "make  every  practicable  effort"  to  dis 
cover  "all  the  guilty  parties  and  to  bring  them  to 
justice." 

As  usual,  the  smugglers  escaped,  and  the  Wanderer 
was  condemned.  She  was  sold  at  auction,  and  was 
bid  in  by  her  former  owners  at  a  fourth  of  her  value 
as  a  merchant  schooner. 

Captain  McGhee,  already  quoted  in  telling  of  the 
final  results  of  the  voyage,  said  that  the  ' '  slaves  that 
had  been  purchased  for  a  few  beads  and  bandanna 
handkerchiefs  were  sold  in  the  market  for  from  $600 
to  $700  apiece.  The  owners  of  the  vessel  paid  Cap 
tain  Semmes  $3,500  for  his  services  and  cleared  up 
ward  of  $10,000  apiece  on  the  venture  for  themselves. 

Lamar's  letters  do  not  quite  agree  with  this  so  far 
as  he  was  concerned  personally.  "I  have  been  badly 
swindled,"  he  says,  "by  getting  into  the  hands  of 
rascals  and  vagabonds.  I  am  out  of  pocket  on  the 
Wanderer— had  to  assume  all  the  responsibility,  pay 
all  the  money,  and  do  all  the  work." 

It  is  fair  to  presume  that  he  actually  got  back  more 
dollars  than  he  put  in,  but  considered  that  he  had 
lost  his  time — had  been  inadequately  paid  for  it. 

On  July  21,  1859,  Lamar  wrote  to  his  friend  Trow- 
bridge,  at  New  Orleans,  saying,  "The  Wanderer  is 
going  to  China,  and  may  return  with  coolies.  They 
are  worth  from  $340  to  $350  each  in  Cuba,  and  cost 
but  $12  and  their  passage."  It  is  likely  she  did  not 
go  on  this  voyage.  McGhee  said,  at  any  rate,  that 
"In  the  spring  of  1859  the  Wanderer  again  sailed 
for  the  west  coast  of  Africa,  and  again  Captain 
Semmes  found  King  Dahominey  ready  to  trade  on  the 


206  THE   AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

most  liberal  terms.  On  the  second  occasion  he  had  to 
go  further  up  the  river  to  secure  the  cargo,  but  he 
succeeded  in  delivering  six  hundred  captives  at  the 
mouth  of  the  river.  They  were  more  intelligent  than 
the  first  cargo,  lighter  in  color,  and  better  in  many 
respects  than  those  captured  nearer  the  coast.  A 
number  of  them  died  during  the  voyage,  and  the 
Wanderer  was  put  to  her  best  speed  on  several  occa 
sions  to  get  away  from  undesirable  acquaintances,  but 
she  was  never  overhauled,  and  she  arrived  off  the 
Georgia  coast  in  December.  She  was  caught  in  a  vio 
lent  gale,  and  in  attempting  to  enter  Jekyl  Creek, 
between  Jekyl  and  Cumberland  Islands,  she  ran 
aground  one  stormy  night,  and  a  number  of  the  cap 
tives  escaped  from  the  hold  and  jumped  into  the  sea 
and  were  drowned.  .  .  .  The  negroes  were  sent  to 
New  Orleans  and  sold,  except  a  few  that  were  scat 
tered  about  among  the  Georgia  planters.  The  profits 
were  quite  as  large  as  from  the  first  expedition,  and 
but  for  the  breaking  out  of  the  war  and  the  blockad 
ing  of  the  port  at  Savannah,  the  Wanderer  might 
have  made  another  voyage  in  1860.  As  it  was,  she 
was  hemmed  up  in  the  river  by  the  blockade  and 
finally  sold  to  the  Confederate  Government." 

Lamar  wrote  a  letter  regarding  this  second  voyage 
that  is  interesting  as  showing  the  kind  of  a  heart 
he  had.  He  said : 

The  man  who  went  on  her  before  would  like  to  go  again, 
but  he  made  an  extraordinary  claim  the  last  time,  and  it,  of 
course,  was  not  settled  in  full — and  he  might  take  some  ad 
vantage  and  throw  us,  to  pay  off  any  feeling  he  might  have 
against  the  old  company.  He  claimed  he  was  to  have  re 
ceived  $30  a  head  for  every  one  who  had  life  in  him,  that  was 


LATTER-DAY   SLAVE   SMUGGLERS  207 

landed,  independent  of  his  condition,  even  though  he  might 
die  before  he  could  be  housed.     Such  was  not  the  contract. 


Imagine  the  scene  portrayed  by  this  letter.  There 
on  the  banks  of  Jekyl  Island  lay  the  negroes,  dying 
because  of  the  torments  they  had  endured,  while  La- 
mar  and  the  captain  stood  by  quarrelling  over  the 
blood  money. 

In  the  record  of  the  meetings  of  the  New  York 
Yacht  Club  for  1859  (a  thin  little  12mo  manuscript 
volume)  can  be  found,  under  the  date  of  Febru 
ary  3,  a  preamble  and  resolutions  expelling  Corrie 
from  the  club  and  erasing  the  name  of  the  Wanderer 
from  the  club's  squadron  list.  The  club  did  this  not 
only  because  Corrie  had  violated  the  law,  "but  more 
especially  from  his  being  engaged  in  a  traffic  repug 
nant  to  humanity  and  to  the  moral  sense  of  the  mem 
bers  of  this  association." 

There  were  many  slavers  living  in  New  York  then, 
but  they  were  not  considered  fit  for  membership  in 
the  New  York  Yacht  Club. 

According  to  Lamar's  letter-book,  the  Wanderer 
was  stolen  out  of  Savannah,  after  the  second  voyage 
to  Africa,  by  a  Captain  D.  S.  Martin.  "He  has  un 
doubtedly  gone  to  the  coast  of  Africa  for  a  cargo  of 
negroes,"  says  Lamar ;  "  and  if  he  is  as  smart  there  as 
he  has  been  here,  he  will  get  one." 

The  Wanderer  was  eventually  captured  by  the 
Federal  forces,  and  was,  for  a  time,  used  as  revenue 
cutter  at  Pensacola.  Then  she  was  sold  at  auction 
and  was  put  into  the  cocoanut  trade  by  a  firm  deal 
ing  with  the  islands  on  the  north  coast  of  Honduras, 
and  there  she  remained  until  driven  ashore  on  Cape 


208  THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

Henry,  where  her  bones  found  a  last  resting-place. 
Lamar  was  killed  in  battle  during  the  civil  war. 

One  might  tell  in  considerable  detail,  too,  the  story 
of  the  slaver  Clotilde,  a  schooner  of  three  hundred 
and  twenty-seven  tons  built  by  Captain  Timothy 
Meagher  on  the  Mobile  River  late  in  the  fall  of  1858. 
Timothy  bought  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  prime 
slaves  in  Africa,  and  landed  them  without  the  loss  of 
one  (a  most  humane  voyage)  near  Mobile  City.  But  it 
did  not  pay.  The  negroes  cost  too  much  ($8,640  gold, 
besides  ninety  cases  of  rum  and  eight  cases  of  cloths), 
and  only  twenty-five  could  be  sold,  because  of  the 
discovery  of  the  importation  and  the  rush  of  officials 
for  prize  money.  The  Captain  sunk  in  all  nearly 
$100,000. 

As  to  the  extent  of  the  smuggling  Stephen  A. 
Douglas  said  in  public  that  he  believed  15,000  slaves 
were  smuggled  into  the  United  States  in  1859.  A 
correspondent  wrote  to  the  Tribune  in  1860  that 
"  twelve  vessels  will  discharge  their  living  freight 
upon  our  shores  within  ninety  days  from  the  1st  of 
June  last."  Douglas's  position  on  the  slaver  ques 
tion  cost  him  dearly — he  failed  of  election  as  Presi 
dent  because  of  it. 

In  spite  of  a  pretence  of  prosecuting  the  slavers  de 
tected  in  their  work,  the  Government  in  those  days 
practically  aided  them  by  failing  to  prosecute  them  to 
conviction  for  the  crime  committed.  Out  of  sixty 
persons  arrested  as  slavers,  uwho  have  been  bailed 
from  the  first  day  of  May,  1852,  to  the  first  day  of 
May,  1862,"  says  a  report  made  by  Secretary  of  the 
Interior  Caleb  B.  Smith,  the  following  disposition  had 
been  made  :  Eight  cases  were  still  pending ;  nine  had 


LATTEE-DAY   SLAVE  SMUGGLERS  209 

been  tried  and  acquitted  by  the  jury;  no  bill  had 
been  found  in  two  cases;  in  one  case  "Defendant 
could  not  be  found,  but  the  bond  was  not  forfeited  "  ; 
in  another,  "  Defendant  surrendered  his  bail,  but  af 
terward  escaped."  In  all  other  instances  the  case  was 
dismissed  or  a  nolle  was  entered. 

In  one  of  Lamar's  letters  was  a  reference  to  what  he 
calls  his  missionary  work,  and  that  is  a  subject  need 
ing  further  notice.  An  examination  of  newspapers 
and  periodicals  shows  that  many  slave-owners  had  a 
strong  desire  for  the  expansion  of  the  slave  territory. 
Filibustering  expeditions  like  that  of  Walker  to  Nica 
ragua  -grew  out  of  it.  Pollard  in  his  "  Black  Dia 
monds"  speaks  of  Walker  as  one  of  a  number  of  men 
who  looked  over  the  whole  territory  bordering  on  the 
Caribbean  Sea  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  as  a  vast  field 
for  slave-holders  to  acquire  in  order  that  they  might 
make  of  it  a  slave  empire  that  should  supply  the  world 
with  cotton,  coffee,  sugar,  and  other  staples,  all  to  be 
produced  by  slave  labor  for  the  benefit  of  the  domi 
nant  race.  Pollard  called  the  dream  magnificent. 

Then  there  was  the  plan  for  buying  Cuba  which 
Buchanan  aided,  as  already  mentioned.  Spain  could 
have  had  $100,000,000  for  the  island  then. 

In  addition  to  these  evidences  of  restlessness  were 
the  efforts  made  to  reopen  the  slave-trade  between 
Africa  and  the  United  States. 

In  De  Bow's  for  November,  1858,  is  the  following  : 

"It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  Southern  States — 

more  especially  those  in  which  are  grown  the  great 

staples  of  cotton,  sugar,  and  rice — demand  a  greater 

number  of  negro  laborers  than  can  now  possibly  be 

14 


210  TOE   AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

acquired  by  natural  increase  or  from  those  home 
sources  which  have  hitherto  yielded  but  a  sparse 
supply." 

The  price  of  slaves  was  increasing  rapidly,  the 
writer  continues.  Quotations  from  reports  of  auction 
sales  showed  that  "  the  price  has  already  reached  that 
point  which  is  beyond  the  means  of  small  planters." 
Able  men  sold  as  high  as  $1,835  cash.  The  lowest 
price  for  an  adult  at  a  sale  quoted  was  "Olivia,  $1,- 
140."  There  was,  of  course,  but  one  remedy — the  re 
opening  of  the  African  slave-trade. 

This  is  a  fair  sample  of  many  similar  appeals  in 
periodicals.  Pamphlets  were  printed  and  circulated. 
One  of  them  made  a  most  potent  appeal  to  all  the 
merchants  and  manufacturers  having  trade  with  slave 
owners.  The  character  of  the  appeal  appears  from  its 
title,  "  Southern  Wealth  and  Northern  Profits."  It 
may  be  found  in  the  libraries. 

Meantime  conventions  were  called  wherein  orators 
could  proclaim  views  which  were,  of  course,  printed 
afterward  in  the  newspapers.  It  was  "  a  campaign  of 
education." 

For  instance,  there  was  the  convention  of  May  10, 
1858,  held  at  Montgomery,  Ala.  Spratt,  of  South  Car 
olina,  from  the  committee  on  the  slave-trade,  intro 
duced  the  following  resolutions  (quoted  in  Du  Bois) : 

'^Resolved,  That  slavery  is  right,  and  that,  being  right,  there 
can  be  no  wrong  in  the  natural  means  to  its  formation. 

"  Resolved,  That  it  is  expedient  and  proper  that  the  foreign 
slave-trade  should  be  reopened,  and  that  this  convention  will 
lend  its  influence  to  any  legitimate  measure  to  that  end." 

When  some  of  the  more  conservative  men  present 
mildly  objected,  Yancey  declared  that  "if  it  is  right 


LATTER-DAY   SLAVE   SMUGGLERS  211 

to  buy  slaves  in  Virginia  and  carry  them  to  New  Or 
leans,  why  is  it  not  right  to  buy  them  in  Cuba,  Brazil, 
or  Africa,  and  carry  them  there  \  " 

His  question  was,  of  course,  unanswerable.  He 
might  also  have  said  that  if  it  was  right  to  own 
negroes  it  was  right  to  buy  them  wherever  they  were 
on  sale  and  take  them  to  any  place  where  they  were 
needed.  Although  he  did  not  know  it,  he  was  clear 
ing  the  much-befogged  road  leading  to  the  point  of 
view  from  which  might  be  seen  the  real  evil  principle 
at  the  bottom  of  slavery. 

At  Vicksburg,  in  1859,  a  convention  of  commercial 
men  resolved  by  a  vote  of  forty  to  nineteen  that  "all 
laws,  State  or  Federal,  prohibiting  the  African  slave- 
trade  ought  to  be  repealed;"  also  that  "the  conven 
tion  raise  a  fund  to  be  dispensed  in  premiums  for  the 
best  sermons  in  favor  of  reopening  the  African  Slave- 
trade!" 

The  reopening  of  the  trade  was  also  advocated  on 
the  floor  of  Congress.  Omitting  many  quotations 
that  might  be  made  from  the  words  of  slave -holding 
Congressmen  it  will  be  sufficient  to  note  what  two 
who  were  representative  of  their  class  said.  Alexan 
der  Stephens,  in  his  farewell  address  to  his  constitu 
ents,  according  to  reputable  reports,  used  these 
words:  "  Slave- States  cannot  be  made  without  Afri 
cans.  .  .  .  [My  object  is]  to  bring  clearly  to  your 
mind  the  great  truth  that  without  an  increase  of  Afri 
can  slaves  from  abroad  you  may  not  expect  or  look 
for  many  more  slave-States." 

Jefferson  Davis,  while  opposing  an  immediate  reop 
ening  of  the  trade, denied  "any  coincidence  of  opinion 
with  those  who  prate  of  the  inhumanity  and  sinful- 


212  THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

ness  of  the  trade.  The  interest  of  Mississippi,  not  of 
the  African,  dictates  my  conclusion."  He  thought  to 
open  the  trade  immediately  would  flood  Mississippi 
with  negroes  by  bringing  in  more  than  could  be  profit 
ably  and  safely  handled,  but  "  this  conclusion,  in  re 
lation  to  Mississippi,  is  based  upon  my  view  of  her 
present  condition,  not  upon  any  general  theory.  It  is 
not  supposed  to  be  applicable  to  Texas,  to  New  Mexi 
co,  or  to  any  future  acquisitions  to  be  made  south 
of  the  Rio  Grande." 

But  the  rising  tide  of  the  power  of  those  who  be 
lieved  in  human  slavery  had  reached  its  highest  level. 
While  slave-holders  were  holding  conventions  in 
which  to  advocate  the  reopening  of  the  slave-trade, 
the  abolitionists  were  in  a  thousand  ways  proclaiming 
the  right  of  every  human  being  to  life,  liberty,  and  the 
pursuit  of  happiness.  A  few  were  even  proclaiming 
the  strange  doctrine  that  the  superior  race,  instead  of 
having,  by  virtue  of  its  superiority,  the  right  to  op 
press  the  weak,  was,  by  the  example  and  command  of 
Almighty  Grod,  bound  to  uplift  and  carry  the  burden 
of  the  weak.  A  river  of  Jordan  running  bankful  of 
blood  lay  before  us,  and  we  were  about  to  bathe  in  it 
and  be  healed. 


CHAPTER  XX 

WHEN  THE  END  CAME 

Buchanan's  Administration  and  the  Slave-trade — When  the 
Sham  Efforts  to  Suppress  Came  to  an  End — Story  of  Cap 
tain  Gordon  of  the  Erie,  the  First  Slaver  Pirate  to  be  Exe 
cuted  in  the  United  States. 

As  hitherto  noted,  the  slave-trade  differed  from  all 
other  kinds  of  traffic  known  to  the  history  of  the  world. 
In  every  other  traffic  there  was  (and  there  is)  a  steady 
amelioration  of  the  condition  of  all  persons  engaged  in 
it.  The  African  slave-trade  to  the  Americas  began 
with  the  work  of  a  good  bishop  who  saw  that  it  was 
more  humane  to  enslave  the  hardy  African  than  the 
effeminate  red  aborigines.  From  that  the  trade  de 
scended  to  a  level  wher&  it  was,  for  that  day,  an  ordi 
nary  commercial  enterprise,  and  then,  because  it  was 
profitable  and  was  becoming  steadily  more  profitable, 
it  reached  out  to  overwhelm  with  its  suffering,  as  well 
as  its  shame,  not  only  everyone  connected  with  it, 
whether  directly  or  indirectly,  but  it  drenched  with 
its  sorrows  uncounted  thousands  who  had  never  had 
any  part  in  it,  and  still  other  thousands  who  had 
opposed  it. 

But  even  while  Buchanan  was  striving  to  buy  Cuba 
on  the  pretence  that  thus  the  slave-trade  would  be 
suppressed,  the  end  of  America's  shame  was  at  hand. 

213 


214  THE  AMERICAN    SLAVE-TRADE 

It  was  not  in  the  blood  of  the  race  to  perpetuate 
hypocrisy  and  injustice  forever. 

Those  of  us  who  are  old  enough  recall  with  strange 
feelings  the  tumultuous  controversies  of  the  days  of 
the  Buchanan  Administration.  The  pelting  of  words 
was  incessant,  but  back  of  all  that  and  growing 
steadily  more  ominous,  was  the  tornado  roar  of  one 
mighty  question,  Shall  the  Right  prevail  in  the  United 
States  of  America  ? 

Granville  Sharp,  as  the  friend  of  one  oppressed 
negro,  had  asked  that  question,  standing  alone,  in 
other  years.  Now  tens  of  thousands  of  the  mightiest, 
most  heroic  souls  of  the  earth  were  standing  up  to 
answer  it,  not  by  words  alone  but  by  freely  giving 
their  life  blood. 

Yet  let  no  injustice  be  done  now  in  recalling  that 
controversy.  As  long  as  a  people  "  holds  its  life  in  its 
hand,  ready  to  give  it  for  its  honor  (though  a  foolish 
honor) ;  for  its  love  (though  a  foolish  love) ;  for  its 
business  (though  a  foolish  business),  there  is  hope  for 
it."  The  slave-owners,  too,  held  their  lives  in  their 
hands.  No  higher  proof  of  their  sincerity  is  known 
to  man.  Nathan  Hale,  whose  statue  stands  in  the 
City  Hall  Park  of  New  York,  reached  out  both  hands 
(albeit  with  sorrow)  when  he  welcomed  to  the  further 
shore  the  spirits  of  those  Americans  who  cheerfully 
went  to  their  death  in  the  David  torpedo-boat,  of 
Charleston  harbor.  We  were  to  determine  not  only 
whether  the  right  should  prevail,  but  to  see  what  was 
right,  and  our  pool  of  Siloam  was  full  to  the  brim  of 
blood. 

But  when  that  is  said — when  the  entire  sincerity  of 
the  masses  of  those  who  sought  to  perpetuate  slavery 


WHEN   THE   END   CAME  215 

is  proclaimed — the  fact  remains  (and  we  can  all  see  it 
now)  that  our  Declaration  of  Independence  had  been 
for  three-quarters  of  a  century  a  grinning  mask.  It 
could  not  remain  so  longer.  The  spirit  that  had 
inspired  the  men  who  made  that  Declaration,  not 
fully  knowing  what  they  did,  was  ready  at  last  to 
turn  the  mask  into  the  flushed  face  of  the  goddess  of 
America.  A  time  had  come  when  a  President  who 
could  understand  the  immortal  words  was  to  be 
elected,  and  he  was  elected.  The  laws  against  the 
slave-trade  were  now  to  be  executed.  The  spirit  of 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  was  now  not  only  to 
be  enacted  in  statutes,  but,  within  limits,  to  become 
the  faith  of  the  people. 

Under  Buchanan  it  was  possible  for  the  slave-bark 
Cora  to  be  captured  on  the  coast  of  Africa  on  the 
18th  day  of  May,  carried  to  New  York,  let  go  after  a 
form  of  condemnation,  and  then  captured  once  more 
on  the  slave-coast,  on  December  10  of  the  same  year. 

With  the  advent  of  Abraham  Lincoln  the  sham 
passed  away.  Here  was  a  man  who  had  the  first 
characteristics  of  all  heroes — sincerity  and  strength. 
He  would,  with  charity  for  all  and  with  malice 
toward  none,  and  with  such  obstacles  in  his  way  as 
no  American  had  ever  faced  before,  and  no  American 
will  ever  face  again — he  would  do  his  duty.  Of  all 
books  that  have  been  written  here  and  may  now  be 
had  for  a  price,  there  is  none  so  well  worth  the  study 
of  an  American  reader,  if  he  will  but  seek  the  heart  of 
it,  as  a  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  But  the  American 
Carlyle  has  yet  to  come  to  place  the  heart  of  it  plainly 
before  us. 

In  a  letter  regarding  the  slave-trade  written  by  Mr. 


216  THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

Seward  to  Lord  Lyons,  on  March  22,  1862,  it  is  said 
that  the  last  slave-smuggler  was  the  Wanderer, 
already  described.  Possibly — in  fact,  very  likely- 
small  parties  were  brought  over  from  Cuba  after  she 
landed  her  cargo,  but  she  was  the  last  regular  slave- 
ship  to  come  to  our  coasts. 

The  blockade  of  the  Confederate  ports  by  the 
Federal  ships,  however,  in  1861  ended  all  slave-smug 
gling  here.  Nevertheless  the  smuggling  of  slaves  into 
the  Spanish  colonies  in  America  was  carried  on  for  a 
long  time  after  our  civil  war  ended.  The  trade  is 
called  smuggling  because  during  all  the  weary  years 
after  1820 — the  weary  years  during  which  so  many 
negroes  were  thrown  overboard  that  every  wave  of  the 
sea  in  the  Middle  Passage  became  a  mound  over  a 
body  that  had  been  tortured  to  death— during  all 
those  years  the  laws  of  Spain  prohibited  the  traffic. 
Mr.  Seward,  in  view  of  the  fact  "  that  this  infamous 
traffic  has  been  carried  on  by  persons  resident  in  other 
countries,  including  the  United  States,"  was  prepared 
to  open  negotiations  for  a  convention  with  Her 
Majesty's  Government  that  should  be  worthy  of  the 
civilizations  of  the  age.  The  shams  of  previous  ad 
ministrations,  and  the  clap-trap  about  the  right  of 
search  and  the  sacredness  of  our  flag,  were  to  come  to 
an  end,  and  they  did  end  in  a  treaty  that  was  con 
cluded  at  Washington  on  April  7,  1862.  To  give  it 
effect,  Congress  made  two  appropriations  of  $900,000 
each.  The  days  when  an  American  cruiser,  out  of 
fifteen  months'  service  in  the  African  squadron,  would 
spend  no  more  than  fifteen  days  on  the  slave-coast,  as 
really  happened  under  the  sham,  were  now  at  an  end. 
The  days  when  American  naval  officers  were  to  go 


THE  HUMAN  CARGO  WAS   UNDER   THE  CHARGE  OF  THE  OLD  RICE-FIELD  NEGROES. 

See  page  202. 


WHEN   THE   END  CAME  217 

through  the  forms  of  executing  the  laws,  while  ham 
pered  by  the  Department,  were  also  at  an  end.  There 
were,  indeed,  slavers  afloat  thereafter.  While  the 
market  existed,  and  such  enormous  profits  were  to  be 
made,  even  the  severest  measures  could,  perhaps,  but 
repress.  By  a  treaty  made  with  Great  Britain  on 
February  17,  1863,  the  limits  of  the  territory  wherein 
the  mutual  right  of  search  existed  were  greatly  ex 
tended.  Even  as  late  as  1870,  Great  Britain  and  the 
United  States  had  to  strengthen  still  further  their 
agreement  for  the  suppression  of  the  trade,  because  a 
few  slavers  were  yet  on  the  high  seas.  It  was  not 
until  about  1886  that  the  Spaniards  (and  some  Ameri 
can  citizens)  ceased  to  own  slaves  in  Cuba,  but  the 
slave-trade  began  its  death  throes — it  for  the  first  time 
felt  a  real  strangling  pressure  on  its  throat — when  this 
treaty  was  made. 

Detailed  stories  of  some  of  the  slavers  owned  in  New 
York  but  trading  to  Cuba  are  to  be  had  by  the  stu 
dent  in  sufficient  number.  For  instance,  George  Howe, 
M.D.,  told  the  story  of  his  experience  in  "The  Last 
Slave-Ship,"  in  Scribner's  Magazine  for  July,  1890. 
The  story  of  how  Appleton  Oaksmith,  written  also 
Oaks  Smith),  the  son  of  an  honored  poetess,  disgraced 
his  name  by  trying  to  get  away  for  a  slaver  voyage  in 
the  whaler  bark  Augusta  is  told  in  Government 
documents.  This  is  a  particularly  interesting  story 
from  the  fact  that  Oaksmith  was  prosecuted  by  Mr. 
Stewart  L.  Woodford,  late  United  States  Minister  to 
Spain,  then  just  beginning  his  public  career  by  serving 
as  an  assistant  to  the  United  States  District  Attorney 
in  New  York  City.  It  brings  the  slave-trade  close 
down  to  the  present  day,  so  to  speak,  when  we  re- 


218  THE  AMERICAN  SLAVE-TRADE 

member  that  the  well-known  diplomat  of  1898  began 
his  public  career  by  prosecuting  a  slaver.  But  all  of 
these  stories  must  be  omitted  in  order  to  emphasize 
that  of  a  slaver  whose  fate  marked  the  end  of  the 
heinious  traffic. 

In  the  summer  of  1860,  Captain  Nathaniel  Gordon,  of 
the  ship  Erie,  took  his  vessel  to  Havana  and  there  com 
pleted  an  outfit  for  the  slave-trade  that  he  had  begun 
buying  in  New  York.  Gordon  was  a  citizen  of  Port 
land,  Me.,  and  had  made  already,  it  was  said,  three 
slave  voyages.  On  leaving  Havana  he  went  directly 
to  the  Congo  River,  and  sailed  forty-five  miles  up  into 
the  interior.  There  he  discharged  a  cargo  of  liquor, 
and  having  prepared  his  ship  for  her  return  cargo  of 
slaves  he  came  down  near  the  mouth  of  the  stream, 
where  on  the  afternoon  of  August  7,  1860,  he  brought 
on  board  the  slaves,  and  "  thrust  them,  densely 
crowded,  between  the  decks,  and  immediately  set  sail 
for  Cuba."  The  slaves  numbered  eight  hundred  and 
ninety,  of  whom  but  one  hundred  and  seventy-two 
were  men.  The  women  numbered  one  hundred  and 
six,  and  the  remainder  were  boys  and  girls.  Gordon 
was  one  of  those  slavers  who  carried  children  because 
it  was  safer  to  carry  them.  They  would  but  flinch 
and  scream  when  he  tortured  them ;  they  would  never 
strike  back. 

As  it  happened  the  United  States  warship  Mohican 
was  fifty  miles  off  shore  next  morning,  and  the  Erie, 
while  crowding  sail  for  Havana,  was  seen  and  capt 
ured.  The  negroes  were  taken  to  Liberia  and  landed, 
while  the  Erie  and  Gordon  were  sent  to  New  York 
for  trial.  The  ship  was  soon  disposed  of.  She  had 
been  taken  with  the  slaves  on  board,  and  even  in  1860 


WHEN   THE    END   CAME  219 

she  was  sure  to  be  condemned,  because  the  condem 
nation  would  bring  considerable  sums  of  money  to  all 
concerned  in  her  capture  and  condemnation.  She 
was  sold,  on  October  4th  of  the  same  year,  at  auction, 
for  $7,823.25,  showing  she  was  a  right  good  ship,  for 
she  measured  but  five  hundred  tons. 

To  punish  Gordon  as  a  pirate  under  the  law  of  1820 
was  another  matter,  and  when  he  was  first  brought  to 
face  the  charge  there  was  a  mistrial.  But  in  the 
meantime  a  new  administration  had  come  in,  and  a 
District  Attorney,  E.  Delafield  Smith,  who  respected 
his  oath  of  office,  had  been  appointed. 

Gordon  was  once  more  put  on  trial  on  November  6, 
1861.  He  was  defended  by  ex- Judge  Dean  and  P.  J. 
Joachimson,  who  were  experienced  in  such  cases. 
Judge  Nelson  presided.  In  two  hours  a  jury  was 
obtained. 

The  papers  of  that  day  say  that  but  few  spectators 
were  in  court  during  the  trial.  The  public  showed 
very  little  interest  in  the  case.  The  Civil  War  was  in 
progress,  and  how  could  anyone  stop  to  consider  the 
trial  of  a  ship  captain  who  had  been  on  trial  once  be 
fore,  had  secured  a  disagreement  of  the  jury,  and,  if 
precedent  counted  for  anything,  was  likely  to  go  free 
in  the  end  ?  Even  the  most  sensational  papers  of  the 
day  gave  the  trial  but  scanty  space.  So,  with  never  a 
thought  that  they  were  making  important  history,  the 
Judge  and  the  lawyers  and  the  jury  worked  away. 
The  plea,  as  was  usual  in  such  cases,  was  that  Gordon 
was  a  passenger,  having  turned  the  command  over  to 
a  foreigner  carried  along  for  the  purpose.  On  the  af 
ternoon  of  Friday,  November  8,  the  attorneys  ended 
their  part  of  the  trial,  Judge  Nelson  delivered  his 


220  THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TRADE 

charge,  and  at  7  o'clock  in  the  evening  the  jury  re 
tired.  Twenty  minutes  later  they  came  back  with  the 
yerdict. 

"  Guilty." 

"  Gordon  heard  the  verdict  without  emotion,"  so 
the  reporters  described  the  scene,  and  they  were  about 
the  only  spectators  outside  of  those  directly  inter 
ested  in  the  case. 

But  when  that  verdict  had  appeared  in  print,  next 
day,  the  people  of  New  York  woke  up  to  the  im 
portance  of  what  had  occurred.  On  Saturday,  No 
vember  30,  when  motions  for  a  new  trial  had  been  de 
nied,  and  Gordon  was  commanded  to  stand  up  and 
hear  his  doom,  he  arose  to  his  feet  in  a  court-room 
"densely  packed "  with  people  who  had  come  to  hear 
the  sentence  of  the  first  American  slaver  convicted  as 
a  pirate. 

As  Gordon  heard  the  command  to  stand  up  his  face 
changed  color  rapidly,  but  once  on  his  feet  he  recov 
ered  his  composure,  and  in  reply  to  the  usual  ques 
tion  said,  with  a  forced  smile, 

"  I  have  nothing  to  say  whatever." 

At  that  Judge  Nelson  began  to  speak.  He  recited 
the  facts  in  the  case,  warned  the  prisoner  that  as  he 
had  shown  no  mercy  to  the  unfortunate  he  could  ex 
pect  none  now  from  the  Court,  and  ended  by  ordering 
that  the  slaver  be,  on  February  7,  1862,  between  the 
hours  of  noon  and  three  in  the  afternoon,  hanged  by 
the  neck  until  he  was  dead. 

When  February  7  came  Gordon  had  been  respited 
for  two  weeks  by  the  President.  "It  was  currently 
reported  that  the  President  had  commuted  the  sen 
tence,"  said  one  paper,  but  Marshal  Murray  knew 


WHEN  THE   END  CAME  221 

better,  and  when  Gordon  looked  in  his  face,  on  receiv 
ing  the  respite,  he  saw  his  fate. 

"Mr.  Marshal,  then  there  is  no  hope  ? "  he  asked. 

"  Not  the  slightest,"  replied  Murray. 

There  was  no  lack  of  effort,  however,  to  save  the 
pirate.  Even  on  the  last  day  of  his  life,  one  of  his 
attorneys  telegraphed  that  the  Governor  of  the  State 
had  appealed  to  the  President,  and  asked  for  a  delay 
for  a  reply,  but  Murray  explained  that  an  arrangement 
had  been  concluded  with  the  President  by  which  no 
telegram  from  any  source  whatever  should  interfere. 

Nor  was  that  all  that  was  done  to  save  him. 
Threats  were  made  that  a  rescuing  mob  to  storm  the 
jail  would  be  raised — threats  that  were  really  ominous, 
for  that  was  a  day  when  innocent  negroes  were  hanged 
to  lamp-posts  by  a  New  York  mob. 

But  a  guard  of  eighty  marines  from  the  navy-yard 
filed  into  the  yard  of  the  city  prison  on  the  morning 
of  February  21,  1862,  and  there  loaded  their  muskets 
with  ball  cartridges,  and  fixed  their  bayonets.  And 
that  ended  the  possibility  of  mob  attacks. 

Meantime  Gordon  had  passed  the  early  part  of  the 
night  in  writing  letters.  At  one  o'clock  in  the  morn 
ing  he  went  to  sleep  and  slept  for  two  hours.  On 
waking  he  managed  to  swallow  a  dose  of  strychnine 
he  had  obtained  for  the  occasion.  As  it  began  to 
work  he  gnashed  his  teeth  at  the  guards  and  shouted, 

"  I've  cheated  you  !    I've  cheated  you  !  " 

But  he  was  mistaken,  for  physicians  saved  him  alive 
and  conscious  for  the  gallows.  Two  or  three  notes 
were  written  by  him  after  his  recovery  from  the  poison, 
and  then,  just  before  the  noon  hour,  the  Marshal  came 
to  the  cell  and  in  the  usual  course  read  the  death 


222  THE  AMERICAN   SLAVE-TKADE 

warrant  and  asked  Gordon  if  he  had  anything  to 
say. 

For  a  moment  the  prisoner  was  silent,  and  then  in 
a  firm  voice  he  replied : 

"My  conscience  is  clear.  I  have  no  fault  to  find 
with  the  treatment  I  have  received  from  the  Marshal 
and  his  Deputy,  Mr.  Thompson  ;  but  any  public  man 
who  will  get  up  in  open  court  and  say  to  the  jury,  i  If 
you  convict  this  prisoner,  I  will  be  the  first  man  to 
sign  a  petition  for  his  pardon,'  and  will  then  go  to  the 
Executive  to  prevent  his  commuting  the  sentence,  is 
a  man  who  will  do  anything  to  promote  his  own  ends, 
I  do  not  care  what  people  may  say.' 

It  was  a  remarkable  speech  to  make  in  the  shadow 
of  the  gallows,  for  the  charge  it  contained  against 
District  Attorney  Smith  was  untrue.  The  reporters 
hunted  up  the  stenographic  report  of  the  speech  to 
the  jury  and  found  no  such  words  in  it. 

At  noon,  on  February  21,  1862,  Nathaniel  Gordon, 
with  a  slanderous  lie  on  his  lips,  started  for  the 
gallows.  "  He  was  deathly  pale  with  terror  [says  the 
New  York  Tribune  of  February  22,  1862],  his  head 
hung  over  his  shoulder,  and  his  limbs  almost  refused 
their  office.  He  tottered  as  he  stood  beneath  the  fatal 
beam,  [so  that]  he  had  to  be  supported.  At  a  given 
signal  the  cord  was  snapped  asunder  by  the  execu 
tioner's  axe  and  Nathaniel  Gordon  was  hoisted  aloft 
into  mid-air.  A  few  convulsive  twitches  of  the  body 
followed.  The  veins  of  his  neck  and  hands  swelled 
and  stood  out  hard  ;  then  the  limbs  lost  their  rigidity, 
the  flesh  assumed  a  livid  hue,  and  the  slave-trader, 
now  a  lump  of  dishonored  clay,  swung  slowly  to  and 
fro  in  the  frosty  air." 


WHEN   THE   END   CAME  223 

For  more  than  three  hundred  years  the  oppressed 
had  been  crying  from  the  foul  hold  of  the  slaver,, 
"How  long,  O  Lord,  how  long?"  But  when  the  axe 
fell,  and  the  rope  creaked  to  the  weight  of  that  dis 
honored  clay,  the  sweet  angel  of  Mercy  was  at  last 
able  to  reply : 

"Now." 


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05      J2J 


BY     JOHN      R.      SPEARS 
THE  HISTORY  OF  OUR  NAVY 

From  its  Origin  to  the  Present  Day,  J775-J898 

With  more  than  500  illustrations,  maps  and  diagrams 

5  volumes,  J2mo,  $10,00 

CONTENTS 


VOLUME  I. 

Origin  of  the  American  Navy 

First  Cruise  of  the  Yankee  Squadron 

Along  Shore  in  1776 

He   Saw    "  the    Countenance    of    the 

Enemy  " 
Under  the  Crags  of  the  "  Tight  Little 

Isle" 

John  Paul  Jones  and  the  Ranger 
The  First  Submarine  Warship 
Privateers  of  the  Revolution 
John  Paul  Jones  and  the  Bonhomme 

Richard 

After  the  Serapis  Surrendered 
The  Year  1779  in  American  Waters 
Building  a  New  Navy 
War  with  Barbary  Pirates 
Decatur  and  the  Philadelphia 
Hand-to-Hand  with  the  Pirates 
Why  we  Fought  in  1812 
Appendix. 

VOLUME  III. 

When  Porter  Swept  the  Pacific 

Porter's  Gallant  Action  at  Valparaiso 

Tales  of  the  Yankee  Corvettes 

Mystery  of  the  Last  Wasp 

On  the  Upper  Lakes  in  1814 

To  Defend  the  Northern  Gateway 

Macdonough's  Victory 

Samuel  C.  Reid  of  the  Armstrong 

A  Yankee  Frigate  Taken 

The  Navy  at  the  Battle  of  New  Orleans 

Once  More  the  Constitution 

In  the  Wastes  of  the  South  Atlantic 

In  British  Prisons 

Stories  of  the  Duellists 

Among  the  West  India  Pirates 

Decatur  and  the  Barbary  Pirates 

Led  a  Hard  Life  and  Got  Few  Thanks 

In  the  War  with  Mexico 

Expedition  in  Aid  of  Commerce 


VOLUME  II. 

Troubles  on  the  Eve  of  War 

The  Outlook  was,  at  First,  not  Pleasing 

The  First  Exhibit  of  Yankee  Mettle 

A  Race  for  the  Life  of  a  Nation. 

The  Constitution  and  the  Guerriere 

Fought  in  a  Hatteras  Gale 

Brought  the  Macedonian  into  Port 

When  the  Constitution  Sank  ihejava. 

Whipped  in  Fourteen  Minutes 

Loss  of  Lawrence  and  the  Chesapeake 

The  Privateers  of  1812 

Early  Work  on  the  Great  Lakes 

The  Battle  on  Lake  Erie 

Incidents  of  the  Battle  on  Lake  Erie 

The  War  on  Lake  Ontario 

Loss  of  the  Little  Sloop  Argus 

The  Luck  of  a  Yankee  Cruiser 

Gunboats  not  Wholly  Worthless 


VOLUME  IV. 

The  State  of  the  Navy  in  1859 
Blockading  the  Southern  Ports 
Loss  of  the  Norfolk  Navy  Yard 
A  Story  of  Confederate  Privateers 
The  Fort  of  Hatteras  Inlet  Taken 
Along  Shore  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico 
Story  of  the  Trent  Affair 
The  Capture  of  Port  Royal 
The  Monitor  and  the  Merrimac 
First  Battle  Between  Ironclads 
With  the  Mississippi  Gunboats 
Farragut  at  New  Orleans 
Farragut  at  Mobile 
Tales  of  the  Confederate  Cruisers 
The  Albemarle  and  Gushing 
The  Navy  at  Charleston 
Capture  of  Fort  Fisher 


VOLUME  V. 

The  War  with  Spain 

The  Demand  for  Intervention  —  Teaching  Spain  to  Despise  Us  —  The  White 
Squadron — Armored  Cruisers  and  Battleships — Treacherous  Destruction  of  the  Maine 
—The  War  Message— First  Shot  of  the  War— Brave  Work  Along  Shore— Dewey  at 
Manila— Sampson's  First  Search  for  Cervera— The  Oregon's  Famous  Run— Schley's 
Cruise  to  Santiago  —  The  Blockade  of  Santiago  —  The  Marines  at  Guantanamo  — 
Auxiliaries  and  Naval  Militia— Destruction  of  Cervera's  Squadron— Seamen  of  the 
Squadrons  Contrasted — Capture  of  Guam  and  Manila — Surrender  of  Santiago  and 
Afterward— Our  New  Naval  Programme. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  OUR  NAVY 

OPINIONS  OF  THE  PRESS 

The   Dial 

"Mr.  Spears's  '  History  of  Our  Navy'  is,  all  things  con 
sidered,  the  best  that  has  yet  been  produced,  and  it  is  profusely 
and  appropriately  illustrated." 

Review  of  Reviews 

"  The  most  ambitious  historical  work  that  has  appeared  in 
this  country  in  the  last  year  or  so.  Mr.  Spears  has  performed 
his  task  in  a  most  thorough  and  workmanlike  manner,  and  with 
such  a  story  to  tell  as  that  of  naval  achievements,  the  interest 
could  not  flag." 

The   Independent 

"The  work  is  done  in  a  warm,  inspiring  and  patriotic  tone. 
It  is  a  history  to  be  proud  of,  and  which  we  can  turn  to  not 
only  with  pride  for  the  past  but  with  hope  for  the  future.  .  .  . 
a  true  gallery  of  most  interesting  and  useful  historic  illustrations." 

.    Philadelphia  Public  Ledger 

' '  Reading  the  book  one  will  find  nothing  that  can  be 
omitted  .  .  .  the  fullest  and  most  enlightening  history  of 
the  American  Navy  ever  issued." 

Brooklyn   Eagle 

"  His  work  must  be  regarded  as  the  best  history  of  the  Navy 
that  has  been  published ;  it  is  an  exceedingly  interesting  series 
of  volumes. ' ' 

Atlanta   Constitution 

"It  has  remained  for  the  Scribners  to  get  out  the  most  ex 
haustive  history  of  the  United  States  Navy  ever  published." 

The   Outlook 

"His  four  volumes  constitute  a  dear,  concise  and  capital 
history  of  American  sea  power." 

The   Interior 

"And  so,  starting  in  simply  and  interestingly,  the  story  pro 
ceeds  delightfully,  for  no  opportunity  is  lost  to  make  apparent 
and  significant  the  pith  of  the  story  or  its  pointedness. ' ' 

Chicago   Evening  Post 

"  Mr.  Spears  has  written  a  work  which  no  American  can  read 
without  interest  and  enthusiasm." 


CHARLES  SCRIBNERS  SONS,  Publishers 

J53-J57  Fifth  Avenue     J*      #      *      #      New  York 


THIS   BOOK   IS   DUE  ON   THE   LAST   DATE 
STAMPED   BELOW 


BOOKS   REQUESTED  BY  ANOTHER  BORROWER 
ARE  SUBJECT  TO   IMMEDIATE   RECALL 


LIBRARY,   UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  DAVIS 

Book  Slip-Series  458 


380514 


Spears,  J.R. 

The  American  slave- 
trade  . 


363 


LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF   CALIFORNIA 
DAVIS 


